Going into their week 18 matchup, the Buffalo Bandits and Vancouver Warriors were trending in different directions. The Bandits, who sat atop the NLL standings, were 4-3 in their last seven games, while the Warriors were winners of two-in-a-row, and it seemed like the addition of Christian Del Bianco was the boost they needed to make a playoff push.
Saturday night’s contest was set to be a good one in front of a sold-out KeyBank Center. Vancouver found themselves down at the beginning of the fourth quarter, went on a three-goal run to regain the lead, and Del Bianco made about 100 saves in the final minute of the game. All of that gave us our final from Banditland, 13-12 Warriors.
Vancouver got off to an early lead as Jeff Cornwall found himself in front of the net and fired a cheeky low bouncer that went in. Buffalo wasted no time tying it back up and taking the lead, as Kyle Buchanan and Dhane Smith scored back-to-back goals. The Warriors punched right back, this time in the form of a three-goal run, spanning just shy of three minutes. Those goals were scored by Kevin Crowley, Keegan Bal, and Ryan Martel. Tehoka Nanticoke cut the deficit with his first to close out the frame, making it 4-3 Warriors after one.
The second quarter was all Vancouver, as they used another three-goal run to boost their lead. Chase Fraser did score the first goal of the frame, but that’d be all she wrote for the Buffalo scoring. The next three Vancouver goals were scored by Bal twice and Riley Loewen. Blink your eyes and it was 7-4 Warriors at the break.
We were treated to a fantastic goaltender battle in this game, that featured two former Goaltenders of the Year. On one side, Matt Vinc looked a bit shaky at times, stopping 17 of 24 in the first half. On the other, Del Bianco looked like he’s been a Warrior for years now, stopping 16 of 20.
Buffalo crept back into the game with a strong third quarter, but Vancouver did just enough to continue keeping them at bay. Ian MacKay buried the first goal of the quarter on the power play, but Marcus Klarich had the answer. The Bandits rattled off two-straight in response, one a transition beauty from Dylan Robinson and the other from MacKay. The two teams continued to trade blows, as Loewen and Buchanan each buried their second of the night to close out the third. 9-8 Warriors after three.
Buffalo seemed as though they were in panic mode to begin the fourth quarter. Whatever it was, it worked for a split second, as they opened the frame with a three-goal run to take their first lead since the first quarter. Those three goals were scored by Nick Weiss and Josh Byrne twice in a matter of 29 seconds. Reread two sentences ago: a split second. Once again, Vancouver punched right back and completely shut Buffalo down, all while scoring four-straight to regain their lead. The four Vancouver goals were scored by Crowley, Martel, Adam Charalambides on the power play, and Bal. MacKay completed the hat trick at the 3:37 mark to cut the deficit to one. Del Bianco and the Warriors defense was a brick wall for the remainder, and they rode this one out. Your final, 13-12 Warriors.
Players of the game for Buffalo were MacKay (3+1), Byrne (2+3), and Buchanan (2+1). Vinc had his shining moments, while others he was a bit shaky. He ended up making 32 saves on 45 shots. For Vancouver, Bal (4+6), Crowley (2+2), and Loewen (2+2) led the way. Del Bianco looked right at home with another strong outing, stopping 40 of 52 for the night.
“We can’t be taking stupid penalties like that”, said John Tavares after the game regarding a five-minute major penalty taken late in the fourth quarter. “We’ve got to be more disciplined. Our guys are playing hard, but they have a lot more on the line than we do. It doesn’t matter where they are in the standings, it’s going to be a tight tough game.”
“Obviously we’re not where we want to be, especially going towards the playoffs”, said MacKay. “The good thing about that is that we have three games going in. We’ve got to look in the mirror and hopefully regroup.”
“We just focused on our gameplan”, said Charalambides. “Just trying to focus on our process and five minutes at a time, and we did a good job of refocusing through those minutes. I mean, the guy’s (Del Bianco) 3-0, he gives us a ton of confidence, look at the saves in the last two minutes, the guy is unbelievable.”
Buffalo (11-4) has already clinched a playoff berth but look to get off the losing train they’ve been on. Their next opportunity is on the road this Saturday as they take on Colorado (8-7) at 9pm. Vancouver (8-7) looks like one of the hottest teams in the league right now and are making a serious push towards the playoffs. They look to continue their winning ways this Friday as they return home to face Albany (6-9). Faceoff in that one is at 10pm.
