The Buffalo Bandits (9-4) and their Thruway rivals the Rochester Knighthawks (6-7) will face off in the second of three divisional showdowns during the 2016 NLL regular season Saturday night at the First Niagara Center.
In their first matchup of the season, the Buffalo Bandits came away with the 13-10 victory at home against the Knighthawks on March 11.
Coming up big offensively for the Bandits on the score sheet that evening was the outstanding play of Bandits forwards Dhane Smith with seven points (4 G, 3 A), Mark Steenhuis with six points (3 G, 3 A) and Ryan Benesch also with six points (2 G, 4 A). For the Rochester Knighthawks on this evening, they were led by forwards Stephen Keogh (3 G, 2 A) and Cody Jamieson (2 G, 3 A) with each player recording five points while Cory Vitarelli (3 G, 1 A) and Dan Dawson (2 G, 2 A) each had four points.
This second matchup against the Knighthawks is not only crucial for the Bandits in receiving the series clinching victory against their divisional rivals, but, more importantly they will also clinch a postseason berth.
Buffalo has historically been one of the NLL’s toughest places for opponents in getting the road victory and the Bandits’ 5-1 record at the First Niagara Center already this year (currently ranked third in the league) proves that the Knighthawks will truly have a daunting task in front of them on Saturday.
One of the important keys to the victory Saturday for the Bandits against the Knighthawks will be the team’s continuing ability to physically grind and wear their opponent down to complete exhaustion.
Bandits’ defensive coach Rich Kilgour believes that, “We wear teams down from the first quarter on because we’re going to punch in and work hard right from the opening whistle. Hopefully, by the fourth quarter, the game becomes easier for us because our opponents are mentally and physically tired and they’re not willing to pay the price that we are willing to pay.”
The other important key to victory for the Bandits will be a balanced scoring attack and that’s exactly what the team gave the Georgia Swarm last week to get their fifth victory in a row with the 18-14 final.
During the game against the Swarm, the Bandits received nine points from Benesch, eight points from Smith, five from Chad Culp, and four each from Steenhuis and Alex Kedoh Hill. So even if the Knighthawks defense decides to double up on Smith, there will be many others on the team who will make up for that on the score sheet.
Even though Buffalo’s offense is currently ranked first in the league, they will certainly be pushed to their limits against the third ranked defense of Rochester and their five time NLL goalie of the year in starting goaltender Matt Vinc. Vinc is currently ranked fourth in goals against average with 11.03 and fifth in save percentage with .785 over the course of 13 games.
