Buffalo Bandits 15 – Saskatchewan Rush 14 F/OT

For 65:22, the Bandits and Rush battled back and forth to the extent that neither team extended to more than a single-goal lead, with every goal being a go-ahead or tying goal until the very end. So buckle up.

Tehoka Nanticoke opened the scoring in transition on a feed from Ian MacKay before the Rush scored the final two goals of the opening quarter. Clark Walter tied the game, attacking the net and crossing over past the Bandits’ defense for the clear lane to the net. Then with 3:09 left in the quarter, Ryan Keenen scored from outside to give the Rush the 2-1 lead after 1.

Into the second quarter, Connor Farrell made his first impression on Banditland with a clean win on the quarter-opening faceoff and then drawing a penalty to put the Bandits on the powerplay, where Dhane Smith buried a point shot to tie the game. Saskatchewan would take the lead with each of their goals in the quarter, but Buffalo had an answer each time. After Robert Church scored on the run from midrange to make it 3-2, Josh Byrne went to the net and tied it at 3. Ryan Keenan got to the net to make it to make it 4-3, Smith scored his second of the quarter from deep to tie it at 4. Then as the half came to an end, Church went behind the back with 1:46 to play, only for Chris Cloutier to tie the game with 20 seconds left in the half after a collection of pump fakes.

Saskatchewan forced a turnover off the opening draw this time, and it led to them scoring first in the second half courtesy of a dunk from Zach Manns. From there, Chris Cloutier added another nominee to his goal of the year, pinballing off multiple defenders and scoring his second between the legs runner of the season. After Patrick Dodds scored to make it 7-6, Josh Byrne scored back-to-back goals to give the Bandits the lead back at 8-7, with the first of those coming on the powerplay and then the second on what can only be described as the lacrosse equivalent of an alley oop after going airborne on his way to the net and turning in mid air to get the shot on net. The Rush halted the opportunity for a Bandits run on their next possession courtesy of Robert Church rolling and burying a pass from Dodds. Then with 5:23 left in the quarter, the Rush took back the control of the scoreboard with Ryan Keenan scoring on his opposite side on the crease. 23 seconds later, it was Buffalo’s turn to prevent a three-goal run, as Ian MacKay buried an open shot. And once again, there was a quick answer, as Dodds scored again to re-tie the game on the next Rush possession. Nanticoke used some post footwork to get to the net to tie the game at 10 before a former Bandit in Nathaniel Kozevnikov strung the far corner from outside with 1:16 left in the third. With Cloutier adding a behind-the-back tally in the final 17 seconds, the game entered the fourth tied at 11.

The goals continued early into the fourth, starting with another goal from Robert Church on another quarter-opening possession goal, only for the Bandits to tie the game once again on their next possession as Josh Byrne fed Tehoka Nanticoke who circled the net and caught Frank Scigliano out of position for his first hat trick of the season. After Holden Garlent and Chase Fraser got tangled up, the Canisius grad, Garlent, got the extra 2 minutes, which led to Dhane Smith picking up the powerplay tally for the 13-12 lead with 9:57 left. Buffalo took a pair of penalties about 6 minutes into the frame, but they killed them both. However, the Rush were able to score next following the return to even strength, once again courtesy of Church. As the clock wound down, Nanticoke fed a cutting Josh Byrne for a crease dive and go-ahead goal with 1:17 left on the clock. Buffalo was able to kill the clock down to 36.4 before the Rush called their timeout to go to the extra attacker, and Church had his sixth goal of the game five seconds into the possession. The Bandits got two more shots off on their final possession out of the timeout but Scigliano stopped them both, sending the game to overtime.

As the extra frame proceeded, play went back and forth with both Matt Vinc and Frank Scigliano getting more aggressive in their pursuits to make a handful of saves each. About five minutes in, Cory Highfield had a shot saved in transition, where Dhane Smith rebounded and flipped to Josh Byrne who fired a shot that was stopped by the glove of Scigliano. After Smith got a second rebound, Byrne fed Tehoka Nanticoke for a quick stick, which was buried past the shoulder of Scigliano, giving the Bandits the overtime win to improve back to 6-6.

Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith continued their dominant seasons atop the point leaderboards, with Byrne registering 4 goals and 7 assists and Smith tallying 3 goals and 7 assists. It was only the first time this season that Smith has registered a hat trick, and the ten-point game brought him to 15 goals and 68 assists through 12 games. With six games to play, it still is looking likely that Smith will have a shot at a record 100 assists. Byrne’s 35 goals and 52 assists lead the Bandits and have him tied with Jeff Teat for the league lead in points (Smith is 4th). Tehoka Nanticoke’s overtime winner capped off a 4-goal 2 assist night, and Ian MacKay had a goal and 4 assists playing primarily up with the offense. Matt Vinc made 47 saves in his return from injury.

All of the Bandits’ accolades on the night took a back seat to the NLL debut of Connor Farrell, which if you read last week you would have seen coming. Farrell won 27 of 33 faceoffs and picked up 19 loose balls and even 3 shot attempts with one of them on goal.

For Saskatchewan, who falls to 4-6, the vets led the way with 6 goals and 2 assists from Robert Church and 3 goals and 4 assists from Ryan Keenan. Frank Scigliano stopped 39 shots in the loss.

Rochester Knighthawks 18 – Albany FireWolves 12

After a scoreless first quarter in Albany’s Friday night game against Vancouver, goals were flying at Blue Cross Arena right away on Saturday Night. Connor Fields fired his first side arm rip of the night past Justin Geddie to put the Knighthawks on the board first. Minutes later, Kyle Waters slipped a screen and buried a pass from Curtis Knight to go up 2-0. After Tye Kurtz gave Albany their first goal of the night on a cut to the net of his own, Fields had his second of the night with just under six minutes to play in the opening quarter, and then Thomas McConvey used his strength to drop step past Nick Chaykowsky for his first of the night 48 seconds later. Rochester made it 5-1 with Fields finishing off the first quarter hat trick with 3:49 to go in the first. Albany picked up the next two on back-to-back possessions with a Travis Longboat rebound and a Marshall Powless dunk. Ryan Lanchbury fed McConvey on a quick stick with 15.2 seconds left, but the FireWolves were able to counter in the remaining time in the quarter, drawing up a Powless behind-the-back pass to Ethan Walker on the doorstep out of the timeout to make the score 6-4 Rochester after 15.

Rochester scored first in the second quarter as well, with Ryan Smith scoring over the top on their first possession, leading to Justin Geddie being pulled for Doug Jamieson. Tye Kurtz scored from outside on a bouncer that trickled past Riley Hutchcraft with 12:25 left in the quarter, but Kyle Waters countered again on their next possession from midrange to go back up 3. Albany mustered their first run of the game, starting with Jackson Nishimura and Nicholas Volkov playing a give-and-go in transition with 10:52 left in the quarter. On the next possession, Alex Simmons drew the help defense on his way to the net and fed Kurtz behind the net for the dunk. Then after another faceoff win from Joe Nardella, Ethan Walker fought off pick-and-roll defense with a fake pass on his way to the net to tie the game at 8. Doug Buchan subbed in for the next 1:17 in the net. Out of the under-10 timeout, Dan Lomas took a five-minute major for forearm contact to the head on a screen attempt, Albany took their first lead of the game almost immediately courtesy of Sam Firth in the middle of the Rochester zone. Rochester did manage to kill off the rest of the penalty, and the scoring halted until the final minute of the quarter, where Rochester tied the game at 9 with 51 seconds left courtesy of Smith’s second.

Into the second half, Rochester took control on both ends of the floor. After killing off an early Brad Gillies crosschecking penalty, Connor Fields had a free lane to the net and took it to the net for his fourth goal of the game. The Knighthawks went to the powerplay in the middle of the quarter, but it was Albany scoring with Alex Simmons improvising his way to the net to tie the game back up at 10. However, the Knighthawks did get their powerplay marker courtesy of a Ryan Smith sweeper from outside. Fields got his fifth with 5:08 left in the quarter, and then Smith added another powerplay goal to make the score 13-10 after three.

It was Albany scoring first in the fourth quarter, with Sam Firth scoring on a partial breakaway in transition 2:48 into the final frame, but the Knighthawks rattled off 5 straight goals from there to ensure that Albany would not be able to come back, starting with a Ryan pick-and-roll with Lanchbury feeding Smith for his 5th goal of the game. Lanchbury continued to distribute for assists, with a pick and roll with Kyle Waters and a feed to an open Thomas McConvey to extend the lead to 16-11. Connor Fields drove to the net for his 6th goal of the game with 3:02 to play, and then McConvey got his fourth on the next possession as Lanchbury fed him a near halfcourt pass on a backdoor cut. Despite Alex Simmons sneaking one final Albany goal in with 2 seconds left, the Knighthawks had cruised their way to an 18-12 victory with a dominant 9-3 second half for their second straight victory to improve to 5-6 and only Albany’s third loss of the season.

The distributing from Ryan Lanchbury in the fourth quarter propelled him from a solid game with 7 assists to a record-setting 12 assists, becoming the 5th player in NLL history with 12 assists in a single game. The only player to get to that coveted 13th assist was Mark Steenhuis during his famous 17-point game. Right behind him was the Knighthawks leader in their power surge, with another 6 goals and 5 assists from Connor Fields, who is now on pace for 139 points, which would beat Dhane Smith’s record of 136 in 2016 if he can keep it up. Ryan Smith had 5 goals and 5 assists for his second double-digit point total of the season. Thomas McConvey had 4 goals and 2 assists, and Kyle Waters added 3 goals and 2 assists, while Curtis Knight and Dan Lomas did not register a goal, they each had 4 assists. Riley Hutchcraft had his best game of the season with 52 saves.

For Albany, Alex Simmons and Tye Kurtz each had 5 points, while a trio of goal and 3 assist games from Ethan Walker, Marshall Powless, and Ethan Walker joined Sam Firth’s 3 goals and an assist for 4-point efforts. Doug Jamieson made 25 saves on 35 shots faced in 43:42 of relief for Justin Geddie, who made only 8 saves on 16 shots on goal faced.

Albany FireWolves 13 – Vancouver Warriors 8

Despite the loss Saturday, the FireWolves did get a victory this weekend, starting with a 13-8 win Friday night against the Warriors. Travis Longboat had 4 goals and an assist led the Warriors while Tye Kurtz and Alex Simmons combined for 2 goals and 7 assists. Doug Jamieson got the win with 41 saves. Keegan Bal (4G 1A) and Adam Charalambides (1G 4A) had a team-high in points for Vancouver.

Georgia Swarm 13 – Calgary Roughnecks 12 F/OT

Andrew Kew (3G 3A) continued his run of clutch moments for the now 8-6 Swarm, scoring with 48 seconds left to force overtime, where Zach Miller completed his hat trick to give the Swarm an overtime win. Brendan Bomberry and Seth Oakes each had 2 goals and 3 assists with Shayne Jackson adding 6 assists in the win. Tyler Pace’s 5 goals and an assist and Jesse King’s goal and 4 assists led Calgary, with Christian Del Biano’s 45 saves keeping the Roughnecks in it.

Toronto Rock 12 – Colorado Mammoth 7

Toronto scored the final 6 goals after Colorado took a 7-6 lead to handle business and stay atop the standings. Mark Matthews led the Rock with a goal and 6 assists. Tom Schreiber added 2 goals and 4 assists, and Dan Lintner chipped in with a hat trick. Nick Rose made 38 saves in another sub-10 GA performance as part of what could very well be an MVP season. Dillon Ward made 46 saves to keep the Mammoth in it, as the Rock outshot the Mammoth 58-45. No Mammoth player had more than two points on a tough night for the offense.

New York Riptide 13 – Las Vegas Desert Dogs 11

A quick start for the Riptide paced them to snap their 3-game losing streak with a 13-11 win. Larson Sundown had 6 goals and an assist, with Jeff Teat adding 2 goals and 7 assists to lead the Riptide. Reilly O’Connor added 4 assists. For the Desert Dogs, Casey Jackson had 5 goals and 3 assists and Rob Hellyer had 2 goals and 3 assists.

San Diego Seals 12 – Halifax Thunderbirds 8

The Seals controlled the middle quarters with Halifax taking a total of 10 penalties and the Seals responding with 4 powerplay goals amidst a 7-2 run on their way to a 12-8 home win to improve to 9-4, one game behind the FireWolves for second place. San Diego shared the wealth on offense with 8-point games from Dane Dobbie and Wes Berg. Jacob Dunbar joined the forward ranks in favor of Curtis Dickson for the second straight week and had 2 goals and 4 assists. Austin Staats added 4 goals and an assist. Clarke Petterson and Austin Shanks each had 2 goals and 2 assists for the Thunderbirds.

Panther City 9 – Philadelphia Wings 8 F/OT

Goals came in bunches, starting with the Wings scoring three times in 1:22 late in the third to tie the game at 5. Panther City scored off the opening faceoff of the fourth quarter and then scored two more times in the first three minutes to go back up three. After a powerplay marker with 8:14 left from Joe Resetarits, the all-time leader in points from an American-born player scored again with 1:04 left at 4-on-4, and then Ben McIntosh tied the game with 39 seconds left on the powerplay to force overtime. However, it was Panther City finishing off the victory in their 4th overtime game of the season with Phil Caputo burying a rebound in front. Will Malcom led Panther City with 3 goals and 5 assists, with Jonathan Donville adding 2 goals and 5 assists and Nick Damude making 48 saves in the win. Resetarits and Holden Cattoni each had 5 points for the Wings

With the trade deadline having taken place this week, we will separately preview the remainder of the March to May and Week 16 next time.

Photo Credit: NLL