Uncharacteristic. It’s perhaps the only word to describe the Toronto Rock’s 12-4 loss to the Buffalo Bandits on Friday night. Prior to game one of the semifinal series, Toronto (who sported the best goal differential in the regular season) had never been shutout in a half in the playoffs (it was 5-0 at halftime). The Rock matched a franchise low in goals scored (4: Jan 12 in Minnesota, and Feb 9 in Rochester – both in 2008, and both 11-4 losses), setting a new playoff standard (previously 5, vs Buffalo in game one in 2023).
Rock Captain Challen Rogers simply said, “Give them credit. They came in with a game plan and took it to us.”
Is it uncharacteristic, though? The win is Buffalo’s seventh straight in the playoffs over Toronto. Last year, game one went 14-5 to the Bandits en route to a fifth franchise championship. Toronto has been eliminated by Buffalo each of the past three postseasons.
“I don’t have an answer for you,” said a frustrated Rogers. “I feel like we’ve been trying to look for one for a while now.”
After the game, many of Rogers’ teammates, coaches and staff looked as if they had just watched their newly-winged pet butterfly get shot with a machine gun. Head coach Matt Sawyer called the outcome ‘disappointing’ three times in his postgame comments. “It was very uncharacteristic for us how we’ve played to this point in the season, but that was us tonight and it’s disappointing,” he said.
Rogers did find a positive saying, “Our offense was putting up good looks. They just put a wall up and we couldn’t get by it.”
That wall goes by the name Matt Vinc. ‘Vino’ was vintage stopping 49 of Toronto’s 53 shots; although 10 others were blocked before even reaching the 41-year-old veteran. Head coach John Tavares – who set the all-time Bandits record for playoff coaching wins in their 10-9 overtime win over Georgia in week one – said, “A lot of guys soaked shots tonight.” He called it ‘contagious,’ adding “When you’ve got players making saves and your goalie making saves, it makes it a lot more challenging.”
Both Sawyer and Rogers conceded the Rock did have opportunities. Shortly after Ian MacKay opened the scoring, Vinc denied three straight Rock chances. Early in the second quarter, it appeared Tom Schreiber had broken the ice with an outside shot, but officials ruled Chris Boushy was in the crease. As the Rock were celebrating, Chris Cloutier broke out in transition and instead of the score being 3-1, it was now 4-0. Vinc denied three more shot attempts just before halftime.
And then there was the power play. Toronto did not score on three opportunities in the 9-6 win over Rochester, and was 0-7 before Corey Small scored a late, inconsequential goal with a late five-minute, six-on-four man advantage.
Said Sawyer, “We had opportunities… those are situations we need to be better in.”
Rogers admitted it was frustrating. “Every play we ran through, we got good looks off. They just weren’t dropping,” he said. “We were hitting posts, we hit people, Vino made saves.” The captain concluded, “Your job is to score, when that doesn’t happen, it’s certainly frustrating.”
Despite the history and the game one result, Tavares isn’t taking anything for granted heading into game two on Sunday. “They’re a great team. They’re in first place for a reason,” he said. “Our message is: it’s not over. It takes two games. We’re not satisfied.”
Which should be chilling words for a Rock team that were left looking for answers yet again on Friday.
