After the Toronto Rock came through on “Guaranteed Win Night” Jan. 23 with a 13-11 win over the Buffalo Bandits, it appeared as though the Rock would be a force to be reckoned with in this NLL campaign.
Toronto sit firmly atop the NLL with a 9-1 record, two games ahead of defending champion Rochester and four in front of the Bandits. The Rock will travel to Buffalo tonight in the first half of a back-to-back that will have implications on the rest of the Eastern Division.
BUFFALO
This two-game set has particular implications for the Bandits, who own a 3-1 record at the First Niagara Centre this season. The Minnesota Swarm have played two less games than the Bandits and sit at 3-5 with games against New England and Calgary. A win and a loss would still keep the Bandits in a favourable position all the while putting pressure on the Swarm to perform above expectations.
Their last game against Toronto was a tough loss, but you have to temper expectations because of the emotion in the building that night. The Rock honoured the late Terry “T” Sanderson that night – combine that with opening night guaranteed win and you have a pretty good idea how tough it would have been for Buffalo to squeak out a win.
The Bandits have been in several competitive games over their last four, dropping two games to the Knighthawks with big wins over Western Division foes Colorado and Calgary. They’re scoring a lot of goals, but allowing a lot of them too; however, it seems as if they thrive in that environment.
Big seasons from Dhane Smith, Ryan Benesch and Mark Steenhuis have paced Buffalo offensively. That trio has scored 67 of Buffalo’s 119 goals: a 56 per cent rate.
Davide Diruscio played well in his first live NLL game action on Feb. 28, allowing 11 goals on 47 shots in a big 14-11 win over the Colorado Mammoth. Anthony Cosmo sat out of that game with a banged-up knee, but it’s expected that he starts tonight.
TORONTO
The Rock hold the best road record in the league at 5-1, their only loss coming in a 8-6 defeat at the hands of the Knighthawks.
Toronto has had similar success against the West Division and are scoring goals in absolute bunches; they’ve scored 46 goals over their last three games. In two of those games, against New England and Edmonton, the Rock were victorious in overtime. It’s a true sign of a team that plays with the proper mentality in close games. They never get too up or down on themselves.
They’ve proven they can go on a run in scoring goals as well – the Vancouver game was a shining example of that. They’re a team that doesn’t have many superstars, but compensate by playing a true team game and getting the requisite goaltending to be a factor for this year’s Champions Cup.
Brandon Miller has been nothing but steady in taking over the starting role from Nick Rose. But Rose hasn’t been a slouch either. Both Toronto goaltenders are one-two in NLL save percentage; Rose sits at .811 while Miller isn’t far behind, sporting a .784 save rate.
The Rock have a balanced schedule the rest of the way. If they’re able to put more distance between them and Buffalo, it’s not far off to say that they may well have locked up the No. 1 seed in the league.
Catch tonight’s game at 7:30 EST/4:30 PST. It can be seen on TSN 1 & 3, as well as TSN GO and WatchESPN.
