Going into Saturday night’s showdown with the San Diego Seals, the Buffalo Bandits hadn’t lost a lacrosse game in over 300 days. Read that again, that’s almost eleven months. Saturday’s tilt was the second game of a back-to-back for Buffalo, as the night before they had a come-from-behind victory against Toronto. It was Marvel Night in Buffalo, and with a crowd of 18,224, the place was jumping like usual.
Much like that game against Toronto, Buffalo found themselves down big midway through the first quarter. But once again, the Bandits stormed back, tied it, took a late lead, but this one was a bit different. San Diego mounted a late comeback and eventually won it in overtime 14-13, handing Buffalo their first loss of the season. The specialty Iron Man themed uniforms couldn’t help the Bandits stay undefeated. To always raucous Banditland we go.
In the game against Toronto, the Bandits went down five in the first quarter. The Seals must have taken that into account, as they rattled off the first four goals of the game spanning over seven minutes. The scorers of those goals were Ben McIntosh, Wesley Berg twice, and Zach Currier. Dhane Smith finally got Buffalo on the board with his first on the power play. 4-1 Seals after one.
San Diego jumped right on the offense to begin the second as Currier buried his second of the game. But here came the Bandits. Three-straight cut the deficit to one and reenergized the building. Those three were scored by Josh Byrne twice and Kyle Buchanan. McIntosh stopped the run with his second, but Buffalo came storming back with two-in-a-row to tie the game up. Ian MacKay buried the first one and the roof almost came off when the second one went in.
Time out from the recap, because I need to set the scene for you. MacKay scores and on the ensuing faceoff, Connor Farrell wins it clean. I personally adore Farrell, and I can speak for a vast majority of Buffalonians, that we all feel that way. He is a national treasure. Farrell veers off towards the bench, seeming like he was going to pass it off. Nope. He shook a defender, drove in, and fired a low burner that went in. Pure pandemonium inside KeyBank Center. I personally have been there for the last two championships, and I truly believe that the crowd was louder for Farrell’s first career NLL goal. If you refer to my post on X, I couldn’t breathe and was fairly certain my heart was going to explode.
Back to live action we go. San Diego silenced the crowd with two-straight to end the second quarter and regained the lead going into the break. Those two were scored by Rob Hellyer. 8-6 Seals at the break.
“We’ll see if they can keep up with us”, said Hellyer. “They played last night, so they probably have some tired legs, we’ll see what happens.”
The goaltender battle was an interesting one to keep tabs on as well. On one side, you had an already solidified legend in Matt Vinc. Vno stopped 18 of 26. On the other end, you had the youngster Christopher Origlieri, who has made quite the name for himself already around the league. He made 16 saves on 22 shots.
The third quarter saw seven total goals scored, four from Buffalo to San Diego’s three. That was huge considering Buffalo had been playing catchup all game, so the deficit would be one when the clock struck zero to end the third. Kudos to the Seals for keeping Buffalo at bay, as every time the Bandits scored and tried to regain momentum, San Diego put it to rest by responding. Byrne completed the hat trick to kick things off, but Dylan Watson answered back with his first on the power play. Chris Cloutier buried his first, but Berg had the answer with his third. Buffalo had a moment where the game could have turned, as two-straight tied the game up for the first time thus far. Those two were scored by MacKay and Buchanan on the power play, but a minute later Watson answered with his second to give San Diego the lead right back. 11-10 Seals after three. What a game.
The Bandits finally broke through in the fourth quarter and not only tied it but took a two-goal lead. Three-straight to kick off the fourth quarter was a good recipe for another Buffalo come-from-behind win, or so they thought. Those three goals were scored by MacKay on the power play, Smith, and Nick Weiss. Berg answered with his fourth and in the waning seconds of the game Currier completed his hat trick with an absolute bullet from distance. To overtime we go.
The overtime period was long and drawn out. Ten plus minutes and multiple possessions from both teams had everyone on the edge of their seats. San Diego set up shop for what would be the last time in the game. Tre Leclaire had the ball, drew a double team, and passed to a wide-open Berg who was standing in front of the net. With the game he was having, in no world was he going to miss that shot. He fired a bullet past Vinc, and it was pure elation for the Seals and a stunned silence across KeyBank Center. Your final from Banditland, 14-13 Seals.
Players of the game for Buffalo were MacKay (3+3), Byrne (3+2), and Smith (2+6). Vinc looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable in the late stages, stopping 42 of 56 in total. For San Diego, Berg (5+1), Currier (3+2), and Hellyer (2+2) led the way. Origlieri was as stout as they come when the game mattered most, stopping 39 of 52.
“We have to be proud of it”, said John Tavares about the winning streak. “It was a long run, and it had to end sometime.” Tavares added about the Seals game, “We made some serious mistakes and unforced errors. I don’t think it was the back-to-back, playing catchup takes the energy out of you.”
“I don’t really remember it”, said Farrell who was all smiles talking about the goal. “It was so loud; it was really unbelievable. I knew I wanted my first one at home, I couldn’t even hear the whistle for the next faceoff.”
“We knew we had fallen behind the previous night,” said MacKay. “But we also had memory of fighting back through it. It wasn’t for a lack of effort; we just weren’t hitting our shots.”
Buffalo (7-1) looks to have short memory, come out of the gates hotter, and start a new winning streak. They hit the road for one of the longer trips in our league for a rematch against San Diego (5-5), only this time in their barn. That game is this Saturday at 10pm.
