This one is for all the marbles. Tonight the Bandits face-off against the Rochester Knighthawks in both team’s final game of the regular season. With the Edmonton Rush winning last week, all Buffalo needs to do to make it into the playoffs is win, but Rochester should be a worthy foe as they themselves do not want to go from champions one year to missing the playoffs the next.
After a long six game losing streak the Bandits were finally able to turn it around last week with a win over Washington, one that kept them in playoff contention. Buffalo was able to avoid their second half blues with a huge fourth quarter. Mark Steenhuis led the way for the Bandits, scoring seven points in the game that has seen him coming out the front door for the most amount of time all season.
Rochester is coming off of a split weekend against teams in Calgary, beating Calgary but falling to the Edmonton Rush. The Knighthawks missed out on clinching a playoff spot last week due to that loss to the Rush, which would have made the Bandits not only need a win this weekend but a Minnesota win over Colorado as well.
Anthony Cosmo has been fighting through an injury of late, but is expected to start tonight. Kurtis Wagar started last week in their win, and has seen a lot of time this season due to Cosmo’s struggles. However, Cosmo is the starter and it would be a surprising move for Darris Kilgour to change that in the biggest game of the season.
The game is the fourth time the two teams have met this season alone, with the Bandits leading the series two games to one. Oddly enough, both the Bandits victories came at Blue Cross Arena while the loss was on their home floor.
Tonight’s game kicks off at 7:30 pm and can be watched on the CBS Sports Network, meaning that it will not be streamed on Youtube.
