After being on the road for the previous two weeks against two truly competitive teams in the Vancouver Stealth and the Toronto Rock, the Buffalo Bandits were definitely looking forward to being back in the warm and friendly confines of Banditland as they faced the Minnesota Swarm Friday night at the First Niagara Center.
The game was truly a tale of two halves where the Bandits (3-2) dominated the first half of the game and then rallied together against a surging second half comeback by the Minnesota Swarm (2-2) to walk away with the 15-12 victory Friday Night.
“First half, I thought we played the best lacrosse since I’ve been here,” said Bandits head coach Troy Cordingley. “Second half, we went in talked about continuing to do the things we did. In the second half, we played not to lose and we were back on our heels and they came back.”
With Bandits captain John Tavares being placed on injured reserve after the game last Saturday in Toronto, the team was definitely looking for one of their own to step up and be the team’s hero during “Superhero Night”. The Bandits player that eventually stepped up this evening and saving the day ended up being Tavares’ replacement in the lineup, rookie Jerome Thompson.
“That’s the talent that Jerome has,” said Bandits head coach Troy Cordingley after the game. “You know he’s such a gifted player and all those Thompson boys are very gifted players. He capitalized on some really nice plays and had some nice shots. He’s a very smart guy and he feeds the ball well and he’s been around the game for a long time. We’re pleased with the way he played for us tonight.”
While the first week of the season saw its first Thompson brother’s matchup of Jerome vs. Jeremy when the Bandits faced the Rush, tonight was round two as Jerome faced off against his younger brother and Swarm rookie sensation Miles Thompson. While the spotlight for the past four weeks has been focused on Miles, tonight was Jerome’s time to steal the spotlight.
“I was kind of looking to do that in the first game (against the Edmonton Rush), but the nerves got the best of me,” Thompson said after the game. “I got my first goal a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver and I feel like that took a lot of pressure off my shoulders. I got to go out there and have fun.”
Thompson ended the game with five points (4G, 1A) and earned first star honors from the media.
While Thompson was leading the way in goal production for the Bandits, it was the spirited play of Bandits forward Mark Steenhuis that helped keep the Minnesota Swarm at bay from their desired second half comeback. Steenhuis led all runners this evening with seven points (3G, 4A).
Earning second star honors for tonight’s game was the NLL leader in goals for the 2015 season so far in Bandits forward Ryan Benesch.
With Thompson leading the way in goals and Steenhuis being more of the jack of all trades in both goals and assists, this left Benesch (3G, 2A) open to play the kind of game he wanted to play and definitely kept Swarm defenders on their toes all game with some very nasty hits as well.
“Once in a while you gotta use your body. You can’t always just play offence right. You gotta get them in while you can,” said Benesch.
Steve Priolo opened the scoring for the Bandits just 1:27 into the game to give the team the early one goal lead. Swarm rookie sensation Miles Thompson responded back with a goal of his own less than a minute later to the tie the game up at one. With Bandits defender David Brock taking a two minute slashing penalty at the 6:15 mark of the first quarter, Swarm transition specialist Jordan MacIntosh would rocket a shot past Cosmo that ultimately gave them their only lead of the game at 2-1 midway through the first quarter.
While the Swarm looked incredibly effective on their two goal run, the Bandits came together and rallied back in extraordinary fashion as they went on a seven goal run that lasted through the rest of the first quarter and extended to almost midway through the second.
Bandits forward Dhane Smith was able to find Ryan Benesch inside to tie the game at two all with 5:17 remaining in the first. Thirty two seconds later, Steenhuis sent a laser of a shot over Swarm starting goaltender Zach Higgins’ right shoulder to give the Bandits their second lead of the night at 3-1. Thompson extended the Bandits lead to three goals with two of his own. The highlight of the night came from his second goal of the evening as he was able to rocket a shot past Higgins with one second remaining on the clock in the first.
Alex Kedoh Hill, and Benesch continued to pour it on for the Bandits with goals coming just :26 seconds apart from each other to open the second quarter. With the Bandits having the 7-2 lead early into the second quarter and looking like they were just about to go supernova, the Minnesota Swarm pulled trouble goaltender Higgins and replaced him with backup Brodie Macdonald.
Unfortunately for the Swarm, MacDonald was also in store for a bad night as well as he allowed three goals on six shots in a very brief 3:26 game time appearance in net. The first shot faced by McDonald ended up being the final tally of the seven goal run from Steenhuis at the 4:30 mark in the second.
Minnesota finally ended the Bandits seven goal run just 90 second later with a goal coming from Shayne Jackson as he was able to sneak one past Bandits starter Anthony Cosmo.
After looking like Minnesota were poised to possibly start a run of their own, Thompson responded with bookending a four goal Bandits scoring run that lasted through the end of the second quarter and into the beginning of the third. The run began on a notable moment as those in attendance witnessed Thompson’s first ever hat trick at the 6:21 mark. Bandits goals would continue with contributions from Chad Culp and Benesch before Thompson recorded his fourth goal just 3 minutes into the third quarter.
Buffalo really took control throughout that entire first half and just shredded through the Swarm’s defense outshooting the Swarm with a total of 35 shots for the Bandits compared to the Swarm’s 21 shots which resulted in the Bandits having the eight goal 11-3 lead heading into halftime.
Refusing to give up and let the Bandits run away with the game, Minnesota began to crawl away from the brink and responded with a four goal run of their own which lasted through the remainder of the third quarter and early into the fourth. Jackson, Kyle Matisz, Thompson and Logan Schuss each added a goal apiece and chipped away further at the Bandits lead and now were down only five goals (12-7) with twelve minutes remaining in the game.
With Bandits fans starting to get that nervous feeling of a possible Swarm comeback in the works, they were able to breathe a slight sigh of relief a little less than two minutes later as transition specialist Nick Weiss recorded his first goal with the Bandits at the 4:51 mark to give the Bandits the 13-7 lead with ten minutes remaining in the fourth.
The NLL’s third star of tonight’s game Callum Crawford of the Swarm helped to engineer another Swarm three goal run late in the fourth with contributions from MacIntosh and Mitch Belisle to make the score 13-10 Bandits with seven minutes remaining in the game. Steenhuis, Schuss, Priolo and Crawford would score back and forth for each respective team and the game ended on a final score of 15-12 in favor of the Bandits.
Buffalo’s next game will be Saturday January 31st at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester for a rematch against their 2014 Eastern Conference Finals opponents, the Rochester Knighthawks.
