The season finale for the Oshawa FireWolves and the Buffalo Bandits came to us from Tribute Communities Centre on Saturday night. These two teams were in opposite positions, with the FireWolves sitting towards the bottom of the standings, looking to have a feel-good moment to end their season. The Bandits resurrected their season and needed a win to solidify a first-round home playoff game. It was Tucker Out Lymphoma Night in Oshawa, so the FireWolves were going to come out with guns blazing.
Would a seven-goal run to start the game be classified as coming out with guns blazing? We’d say so. The FireWolves PUT IT ON Buffalo to begin the game, and Doug Jamieson was a man possessed. Buffalo got as close as three, and Oshawa rode off with a very convincing 12-8 win to close their season. Heightened emotion after the game as Dyson Williams celebrated the win on his younger brother’s evening.
With the seven-goal run in mind, the first quarter was pretty quiet. It took a while for the scoring to start, as Dawson Theede finally lit the lamp at the 6:58 mark on the power play. Both defenses and goaltenders were stout and that’s how the first frame would finish. 1-0 Oshawa after one.
The second quarter was the definition of “game of runs”, as Oshawa kicked it off with six-straight and Buffalo answered back with four of their own. Oshawa’s goal scorers in that run were Ryan Benesch, Patrick Kaschalk, Alex Simmons, Theede, and Tye Kurtz twice. After all that dust settled, there was 5:34 to go in the second quarter and Buffalo was scratching their heads. After some heavy conversation on the bench, Buffalo finally cracked the Jamieson code and scored their four to cut the deficit and build a little momentum. The four Buffalo goals were scored by Joe Resetarits on the power play, Josh Byrne twice, and Dhane Smith on the power play. An absolute track meet of a second quarter had us at 7-4 Oshawa at the break.
“I think we started off pretty well”, said Kurtz. “Our defense was lights out as they always are and our offense gained some momentum there in the second. They’re on a four-goal run right now; we have to shut that down and get back to what we were doing.”
The game slowed down considerably in the third quarter, with Oshawa continuing to dominate on defense, all while tacking on to their lead. Ethan Walker and Taggart Clark went back-to-back to kick things off, and Kyle Buchanan answered back on the power play with his first. Theede completed the hat trick in the final minute to get that goal right back. 10-5 Oshawa after three.
One thing we know for certain is that Buffalo is a resilient group. They have had multiple come-from-behind victories, as well as one-goal wins. The Bandits inched a bit closer to begin the fourth with two-straight goals, one from Resetarits and the other from Smith. Oshawa matched their resiliency as they came back with two of their own courtesy of Dyson Williams and Will Johansen, both power play markers. Oshawa’s defense continued to keep Buffalo at an arm’s length, and Jamieson continued his hot play. Resetarits made the score look a bit better with his hat trick in the final few minutes, but that’d be it for this one. Tempers boiled over all throughout the fourth quarter, with 66 penalty minutes from both teams, four misconducts, one of which was Jamieson for mixing it up with some Bandits players.
Players of the game for Oshawa were Theede (3+3), Kurtz (2+3), and Simmons (1+6). Jamieson was a stud; we’ll continue to reiterate that. He stopped 45 of 53. For Buffalo, Resetarits (three goals), Smith (2+4), and Byrne (2+3) led the way. Matt Vinc would love to have this one back, as he looked out of sorts especially in the second quarter. He stopped 36 of 48 in total.
“They (defense and Jamieson) really showed who they are tonight”, said Simmons. “We just want to show that we’re not going to give up and that we’re not going to go down without a fight. We’re going to have a lot of success here, next year is going to be a lot different. We’re happy to be here and we can’t wait to have our future here.”
Oshawa packs it up for the off season. They ended the year on a high note and look for better results next season.
(5) Buffalo hits the road for their first-round playoff game. They travel to Duluth to take on (4) Georgia. Buffalo beat Georgia in Week 1, 15-11, but the Swarm have been on a heater. That game is on Saturday April 25th at 7:30pm. It’s playoff time folks. Buckle up.
