After clinching second place in the NLL’s Eastern Division during the regular season, the defending NLL champion Rochester Knighthawks (12-6) will host the Buffalo Bandits (11-7) 7pm Friday night at the Blue Cross Arena for the opening round of the 2015 NLL playoffs.
It’s what we work for in the regular season to get into the playoffs and then obviously to have home floor as much as possible,” said Knighthawks defenseman Brad Self. “We know that Buffalo’s going to be hungry and they’re going to bring their fans. It should make for an exciting game.”
The Knighthawks and Bandits faced off each other three times during the regular season. Over the course of the three games, Rochester swept the season series this year with a 17-11 win at the Blue Cross Arena on January 31st, a 15-10 victory at the First Niagara Center on February 14th and a thrilling 13-12 come from behind overtime victory at the Blue Cross Arena on February 21st over the Bandits.
Since the last time these two teams faced each other about ten weeks ago, the Bandits have been on fire with a 7-2 record over their last nine games during the regular season. One of the key factors to the Bandits resurgence during the second half of the season is the creation of the team’s offensive chemistry finally starting to come together with all members thinking and playing as one cohesive unit.
During the NLL coaches conference call held earlier this week, Bandits assistant coach Dan Teat also added that “Offensively, the guys have been doing a real good job of sharing the ball and their shooting’s been real good the last five or six games. I think that newfound confidence is going to play a big key for us this weekend.”
On the other side of the ball, the Rochester Knighthawks tough and at times brutal defense will definitely make sure that every trip to the front of the net for the Bandits will hopefully make them think twice about crashing the net against starting goaltender Matt Vinc.
Since the Bandits offense have already played the Knighthawks defense three times already during the regular season, forward Dhane Smith knows what it will take for the Bandits to strike at the heart of the Knighthawks on Friday.
“Obviously their defense plays a little bit differently than others. We’re going to need to get to the middle of the floor and create from there. I think if we keep moving the ball as much as we have been, we’ll be creating offense a lot.”
While Smith and the rest of the Bandits have their own game plan for victory, one little surprise that may be the monkey wrench to that plan was the recent addition of former Bandit forward Joe Resetarits to the Knighthawks roster during the trade deadline. In seven games with Rochester, Resetarits has recorded 27 points from 13 goals and 14 assists.
Rochester head coach Mike Hasen believes that “Joe’s been dynamite for us. He’s a great little player. He works so hard and he doesn’t need the ball on his stick. He gets himself open and then Keogh and Point are on that right side as well. He’s been a great fit and looks like he’s been there for years.”
The Bandits and especially assistant coach Teat know that defeating the Knighthawks will be no easy measure and look forward to the challenge.
“We’ve got to take the mentality that the season’s over and we’ve got a one-game showdown against the defending champs. We want to be the ones that knock them off.”
Leading the offensive charge for the Bandits on Saturday will be offensive trinity of Ryan Benesch (55G, 58A), Dhane Smith (39G, 68A) and Mark Steenhuis (36G, 59A).
Leading the offensive charge for the Knighthawks will be regular season team leaders Cody Jamieson (36G, 56A), Dan Dawson (23G, 62A) and Jordan Hall (25G, 39A).
