Last night was a chance for the Bandits to inch even closer to the first place Toronto Rock, given that the Rock lost the night before in Minnesota. Rochester, although seeming to be getting back on track, was a team that the Bandits had already beaten. Even so, nothing went as planned for Buffalo.
Rochester took an early lead and never looked back en route to a 15-7 rout of the Bandits. Matt Vinc stood on his head in goal, not allowing the Bandits to get on the scoreboard until two minutes into the second quarter.
“I had a lot of clear looks,” said Vinc. “Our guys did a great job cleaning up loose balls. They’re a pretty good team at picking those up and getting second opportunities. I think our defense did a great job for playing a back-to-back.”
On the other side of things the Bandits had defensive struggles once again. Cosmo didn’t look horrendous at the start, but defensive breakdowns lead to another change in goal. Kurtis Wagar came in after Cosmo let in a fifth goal, but Cosmo returned at the start of the second half.
“You’re looking down at the other end and everything’s going for [Vinc], and on my end the ball hits me and somehow finds its way in,” said Bandits goalie Anthony Cosmo. “Its frustrating.”
Despite outshooting the Knighthawks 61 to 48 in the game the Bandits just couldn’t get solid chances on Vinc. In the second quarter alone the team had 21 shots, yet only two goals.
“There’s no excuses,” said Bandits forward Shawn Williams. “We lost, [Vinc] played well, the defense played well. We’ve just got to pick the pieces up and get back at it Tuesday at practice.”
It seemed like the wind was taken out of the Bandits sails early in the game after a Dylan Evans crosscheck caught Chad Culp in the back of the head. As Culp struggled on the floor play was not called and Rochester charged back to score the first goal of the game.
“That’s part of the game, you have to be ready for that,” said Cosmo. “Our league is all about momentum. It comes from a bad hit all the way down to our goal. We’ve got to be ready for that, to turn that momentum around.”
Bandits coach Darris Kilgour didn’t believe that the hit was that meaningful.
“You can’t blame a play that happened in the first minute of the game on what happened in the last 59 minutes,” said Kilgour. “We got outplayed in every aspect of the game.”
“We shot bad again, and it adds up to frustration,” Kilgour said, visibly angry with the outcome of the contest. “We scored seven goals tonight and four came out the back door. If Dave Brock can figure out how to beat Vino I’d think some offensive players would.”
The Bandits just couldn’t get any offense going, and when they did Rochester seemed to always come right back with a goal of their own. The Knighthawks on the otherhand, who outscored their opponents 35 to 17 this weekend, seem to finally have everything clicking.
“We’re just trying to get better,” said Rochester head coach Mike Hasen. “Its nice that we’re back to .500, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”
The two teams face-off again next week, giving the Bandits a chance to right the wrongs of this week. Although they got the best of them this week, Rochester understands that the next round will still be tough.
“We’ll enjoy this one for now, but they’re not going to take that likely,” said Hasen. “I know Darris is going to push them even harder and they’re going to come out with a fire.”
