“Live more, laugh more, love more” – Tucker Williams
Got your tissues ready? Week 20 action came to you live from KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. Emotions were on high as it was the ninth annual Tucker Out Lymphoma night. Every year the Buffalo Bandits honour the late Tucker Williams, son of former Bandit, Shawn Williams, and raise money and awareness for paediatric cancer, specifically Burkitt’s Lymphoma. They hosted their downstate rivals, the New York Riptide. Both teams wore some sweet custom uniforms in honour of Tucker.
Oh, and this one had some free lacrosse. Buffalo playing in an overtime game? No, couldn’t be.
In front of 16,000+, the Bandits never led in this game and it took overtime to decide it. Josh Byrne, who got engaged earlier in the week and was the birthday boy Saturday night, buried the winner in overtime. Talk about a good week. Pure elation and emotion in Banditland, as Buffalo took this one 11-10. Let’s get to it.
To make this game even better, we were treated to the league’s top two point scorers in Jeff Teat and Dhane Smith. New York silenced the home crowd as they scored the first two goals of the game. Scott Dominey notched the first with a beautiful transition goal. Teat scored the second as he was being spun down to the turf. What can’t this dude do? Kyle Buchanan finally got Buffalo on the board and was followed up by Ian MacKay’s first. 2-2 after one.
Dominey opened the scoring the same way he did in the first. Dominey corralled a loose ball and walked right in to bury his shot. Smith tied it right back up on the power play for Buffalo with a pinball shot that went in off a Riptide defender. Larson Sundown and Chase Fraser traded goals to keep it tied. Sundown’s was his patented dunk from behind the net, and Fraser completely undressed a Riptide defender before burying his shot. Teat got his second of the game to give New York the 5-4 lead going into the half.
We have to give some love to the goaltenders. Cameron Dunkerley was extremely stout for New York in the first half. The netminder made 21 saves on 25 shots. On the other side, Matt Vinc was no slouch either. The veteran stopped 22 of 27.
“They were watching Teat pretty hard, the seas parted and I just went to the net,” said Dominey about his second goal of the game. “How could you not play your heart out in front of this crowd, we’re just having fun.”
For the third straight quarter, the Riptide opened the scoring. This time it was the big man, Tyler Digby, notching his first on the power play. Buchanan got his second of the game and the back and forth continued. Mike Burke tallied the next one for New York, but was answered less than 30 seconds later by Buchanan’s hat trick. Holy smokes.
“Coast to coast” is usually Steve Priolo’s nickname, but Smith was donned with that because of his next goal. Dhaner scooped up a loose ball in his own end, and well, you can figure out the rest. The tie didn’t last for long as Digby got his second of the quarter with 14 seconds left. 8-7 Riptide heading to the fourth.
A two-goal lead seemed like it would be enough to win this game based on how it was going. Connor Kearnan got his first of the game to start the fourth quarter and gave New York exactly that. Byrne saved his best for the last quarter and answered with his first of the game. Burke and Byrne each got their second, and New York still led by one with 5:54 to play. Byrne’s second was seemingly from the parking lot. The last five minutes were fast and furious. With 30 seconds left, Smith found himself with the ball. He threw a pump fake and fired a shot that squeaked through Dunkerley’s five-hole. Pandemonium in Buffalo as we were headed to overtime.
Each team held the ball a handful of times in the extra frame. On the final possession, Byrne received a pass, attempted a swim move that got shut down, so he stepped back and fired his patented outdoor-esque shot that beat Dunkerley top right. Check the roof at the KeyBank Center. Your final from Buffalo, 11-10 Bandits. Buffalo is now 4-0 in overtime games this season.
Players of the game for Buffalo were Smith (3+8), Byrne (3+2) and Buchanan (three goals). Chris Cloutier also contributed five assists. Vinc was world class late in the game and made 47 saves on 57 shots for the night. As for New York, Teat (2+4), Digby (2+1) and Dominey (2+1) led the way. Dunkerley has absolutely no reason to hang his head, as he made 47 saves on 58 shots.
“This is a very emotional game, obviously everything that the Williams family has gone through, we’re just happy we could pull this one out for them,” said Byrne after the game. “I’m proud of our guys for never giving up, and finishing it off.”
“Stressful,” said John Tavares. “Our guys didn’t give up, so we have to give them credit. Putting the ball in the net solves a lot of problems.”
Set your DVRs, take the night off, do whatever you need to do. We have quite possibly the game of the year coming up next Saturday. Buffalo (12-4) sits in second place in the East Conference and welcomes the first place Toronto Rock (13-4) to town. This one will be for first overall in the East and decides home-floor advantage throughout the playoffs. That game is Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. New York (4-12) is eliminated from playoff contention, but can still make some noise by playing spoiler. They travel to Halifax (8-8) Saturday night at 6 p.m.
A few tidbits about the Bandits. Ian MacKay reached 100 career points in this game, Kyle Buchanan surpassed 900 career loose balls, and the Bandits played in their 500th career game as a franchise, which makes them the only singular franchise to ever do so.
