The Buffalo Bandits will travel out west to take on the Colorado Mammoth at the Pepsi Center. Both teams are coming off hard fought, tight games in Week Two. Buffalo got the 10-9 win over Calgary, while Colorado defeated Rochester 16-14 in a back and forth affair.
The Bandits offense seemed to be off last week; there were a lot of dropped passes, and missed shots. Also not to mention that there were only two multi-goal scorers with Ryan Benesch and Dhane Smith getting two goals. One thing to not however, was the performance of the Buffalo transition unit in Week Two. Four of the eight goal scorers were defensemen/transition players who were able to push the ball up the floor quick and effectively. The Bandits aren’t usually known for having a top tier transition unit, so that under rated unit might be a key factor in this matchup against Colorado that boasts some talented transitionmen in Joey Cupido and Cam Holding. If the Bandit defense can put up a similar performance as they did against a talented Calgary defense, you may see Mammoth offensive stars limited to a mere goal or two as you saw with Jeff Shattler and Curtis Dickson.
Colorado was involved in a high scoring, back and forth affair with Rochester last week. Dillon Ward was streaky all night. In the first quarter he allowed four goals on only nine shots on net, yet the next quarter he only allows one goal in. Offensively the Mammoth are in great position. they have offensive stars in John Grant Jr and Adam Jones. Those two players will need to have a key performance in this one if they want to win. Grant was almost silent on the goal sheet last week, but did show a strong playmaking ability with four assists. If there is one player in this league that can quarterback an offense while being able to slip by some of the best defenders, it’s Grant.
Face-off is slated for 9:00 PM EST at the Pepsi Center in Denver. This will be the only meeting for these two teams during the regular season. That being said, you can expect a high scoring, aggressive performance out of both the Mammoth and the Bandits.
