It’s no secret that it’s always a party in Banditland. 18,459 rabid fans piled into KeyBank Center for what was sure to be an action-packed night. First, it was an NLL Finals rematch from last year as the hometown Bandits welcomed in the Albany FireWolves. Secondly, and more importantly, it was Tucker Out Lymphoma night, celebrating the life and legacy of Tucker Williams who passed away from Burkitt’s Lymphoma years ago. Saturday night would have been “Tuck Dog’s” 19th birthday, so how fitting was it that his older brother Dyson would be playing in the game for Albany. Both teams, as always, sported some very cool uniforms to honor the special night.
Way across the United States, former Bandit and father of Tucker and Dyson, now head coach of the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, Shawn Williams was set to lead his club to victory on the same night. Talk about a perfect script.
Wipe the tears, we had a game to play. The Bandits came in as the league’s only undefeated team left and they have been dominant every step of the way. Buffalo came in undefeated and left the same way, as they downed the FireWolves 16-10.
Ethan Walker silenced the raucous crowd with his first of the game on the power play to open the scoring. Buffalo, like we’ve seen a lot this year, answered right back in the form of a run. Two-straight goals, one from Chris Cloutier and the other from Ian MacKay, set the crowd ablaze once again. Carson Moyer tied it back up for Albany, but guess what? Another Buffalo run. This time it was four-in-a-row, the final three being three goals on three shots. The boys were buzzing. Those four goals were scored by Matt Spanger, Chase Fraser, Dhane Smith, and Josh Byrne. Byrne’s goal caused the exit of goaltender Doug Jamieson, who remained on the bench for the rest of the game. Alex Simmons buried his first and the quarter came to an end. 6-3 Bandits after one.
Buffalo continued the pressure in the second quarter, outscoring Albany four goals to one. Smith and Byrne went back-to-back to open it up, but Tye Kurtz had the answer for the lone Albany goal. Buffalo closed out the first half with two more, one from Byrne and the other from Tehoka Nanticoke. KeyBank Center was as loud as ever. 10-4 Bandits at the break.
The goaltending situation could not be more different. On one side, the ageless Matt Vinc was as sensational as ever, stopping 19 of 23. He also eclipsed 16,000 minutes in net in his illustrious career. On the other, the combination of Jamieson and Andrew Kidd was a bit shaky. That duo stopped 21 of 31.
“They play a weird defense out there that no one else plays”, said Smith. “If we dictate out there, we’ll get good looks, and we did. As I’ve grown up, it gets even tougher, he (Tucker) was so young. The least we can do is give back and work as hard as we can.”
A lot of people around the league say that Fraser doesn’t score regular goals. His goal to open up the third quarter proved that once again. Chase found himself on the crease with the ball, lost it, ran all the way around the back of the net and as he approached the front again, he fired a sick behind-the-back shot that went in. Buffalo went on to go scoreless the rest of the way, and the momentum completely flipped in Albany’s favor. After quite a few minor penalties by Buffalo, the FireWolves cashed in with two-straight power play goals from Walker and Simmons. Travis Longboat and Kurtz added two more to close it out, and suddenly, the Bandits lead was dwindling. 11-8 Buffalo after three.
The lead was restored for Buffalo less than three minutes into the fourth quarter, as Nanticoke and Smith scored two goals in 27 seconds. Walker got his hat trick on the power play in response, but once again, here came Buffalo. Three-in-a-row virtually put this one to bed. The scorers of those three were Byrne twice and MacKay, whose goal was filthy in its own right. Mickey was getting mauled by almost every Albany defender on the floor, he snuck out, did a swim move, and fired a shot that went in. John Piatelli got his first in the waning minutes, but it wouldn’t be enough. Your final from Banditland, 16-10 Buffalo.
Players of the game for Buffalo were Byrne (5+5), Smith (3+7), and Fraser (2+3). Vinc struggled a bit in the third but bounced back in the fourth. He made 38 saves on 48 shots. For Albany, Walker (3+1), Simmons (2+5), and Kurtz (2+2) led the way. The Jamieson/Kidd combination stopped 38 of 54 in total.
“Super special night for the Williams family”, said Byrne. “Obviously seeing Dyson playing on the other side, to play for something greater than yourself, it’s hard to really put words to it.”
“When everyone is scoring, it’s hard to stop us”, said John Tavares. “You can’t focus on one or two guys.”
“It’s frustrating for sure”, said Smith about the team having another bye week. “It doesn’t feel like we’re 6-0, we want to do things right. This is going to be a big test for us.”
Buffalo (6-0) has one more bye week to warm up for the final stretch of their schedule. Their next contest is in two weeks on the road against the Toronto Rock (3-5)*. That game is on Friday February 14th at 7pm. Albany (2-7) must start stringing some wins together to jump into the top eight. Their next crack is at home next Saturday February 15th against Ottawa (4-4). Faceoff in that one is at 7pm.
