The Buffalo Bandits will look to get their second win of the weekend after defeating the Minnesota Swarm 15-12 on Friday. Their opponent in this matchup will be the Rochester Knighthawks, undoubtedly Buffalo’s biggest rival. Rochester has struggled during much of the season so far, but looked to turn a corner after a convincing win against the Toronto Rock 8-6.
While the Buffalo Bandits seemed to not miss a beat in the first half without their team captain John Tavares in yesterday’s game. They had another second half collapse, which it seems we talk about this a lot with the Bandits, and the Swarm nearly came back and won it, coming within only two goals at one point. The Knighthawks are a very experienced team, and while the Bandits might have been able to get away with it against the Swarm, I don’t see things being the same if they have a similar collapse. A few Bandits you should have your eye on in particular is Jerome Thompson and Ryan Benesch. Thompson seemed to have beaten his nerves from the first few games, and put up a four goal night on Friday, which he will look to repeat in this one. Ryan Benesch also had a big game putting in three goals. Benesch has been playing in this league for a while now, and probably knows a thing or two on how to beat Vinc, so I think he just may be the Bandits leading scorer in this one.
The Bandits will look to Anthony Cosmo to put in a strong game between the pipes. Cosmo is already leading the league in saves with 200, and has a solid top 3 save percentage of .778. However, Cosmo can’t do it all on his own. He needs his defense to step up against a strong offensive opponent, and look to D guys like Steve Priolo, Dave Brock, and Billy Dee Smith (just to name a few) to have big games.
The back-to-back-to-back defending NLL Champion Rochester Knighthawks have no question struggled so far into the 2015 season. But after finally getting their first win last week against Toronto, I think this will be a big game for them, because if the win I think that just may prove they are right back on track. Matt Vinc seemed to struggle individually earlier in the season between the pipes, but again, last week he seemed to be that Goaltender of the Year goalie we are used to seeing, only allowing six goals. It’s very hard to get shots past Vinc, he’s very good on cross-crease shots, and outside shots he just gobbles up. I think though that bounce shots on his sides are his weakness, so the only way I see Buffalo getting a lot in is if they can capitalize on this. The Hawks will look to see big games out of Cody Jamieson, and Dan Dawson. The defensive unit is being led by Captain Sid Smith, who in my opinion has also struggled since getting smaller over the offseason by putting on more lean muscle. Former Bandit Joel Matthews also surprised a lot of people in his first game for the Hawks last week, so I’m interested to see if he’ll be in the lineup. Matthews plays a very gritty game, he never gives up on loose balls, and rarely lets an opposing ball carrier get by him.
Overall, I’m optimistic about this game. It seems the Bandits have always had a very hard time going 2-0 on back to back games. The Hawks are in a great position to really turn a corner on the season here. So with all that being said, I think the Bandits will play a great first half, probably scoring about seven or eight goals and lead at the half, but then have a collapse where they will only put in about two or three goals throughout the rest of the game. So I say Rochester wins this one 14-11.
