The Buffalo Bandits (3-3) and the Calgary Roughnecks (0-4) will face off in their only meeting of the 2015 NLL regular season on Saturday February 7th, 2015 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. The last time these two teams met was on April 5th, 2014 at the First Niagara Center where the Roughnecks emerged victorious with the 16-13 road victory. The last time the Bandits were victorious in Calgary was on February 8th, 2008 where they dominated in the 17-9 win.
Last week, the Bandits were faced with their second of four weekend doubleheaders and were unfortunately left with a split decision. The Bandits found themselves on the winning end of a 15-12 home showdown with the Minnesota Swarm on January 30th, but ultimately ran out of gas against the Rochester Knighthawks on January 31st in the 17-11 road loss. With the Bandits at a .500 record and a losing 1-3 record already on the road, the team will definitely need to play a top notch consistent 60 minutes from both ends of the floor to secure the victory Saturday against the Roughnecks.
Bandits’ assistant coach Dan Teat addressed the media this week about his team’s lack of consistency with “I think that we had a real positive start on Friday night. We had a great first half against Minnesota, I guess the second half against some teams you get a little comfortable when things are going your way and you kind of take your foot off the gas and let teams back in. Teams are too good in this league to just coast through a second half.”
On the other side of the coin, the Roughnecks are winless at the moment and desperate to do whatever they have to, to get away from the brink and back into the Western Division race.
In last week’s NLL action, the Roughnecks were down 8-5 at halftime on the road against the Eastern Division leading Toronto Rock. In the second half, the Roughnecks scored four straight goals late in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 11-11 with less than two minutes remaining and looking like they may get their first win of the season. Unfortunately for the Roughnecks, Josh Sanderson was able to get the game winning goal on an assist from Rob Hellyer with 1:44 remaining on the clock in the 12-11 Rock victory.
Even though it was the fourth straight loss for Calgary, head coach Curt Malawsky was really proud of the effort his team put on the floor against the Rock.
“I thought we competed really hard. I thought we hung around, I thought our second half defensively was the best half we had all year long,” said Malawsky. “Offensively, we still need to generate some more quality chances, I don’t think we’re playing conducively up front.”
One of the key ingredients to getting a more consistent effort from the Roughnecks on Saturday and for the rest of the season will be their ability to get back to basics and not repeating the same mistakes they have made in their previous four outings.
“I think we’re still making a few mistakes,” Malawsky said. “One-handed loose balls, not getting off the floor, missed assignments in the defensive zone and it ends up in the back of our net.”
While it’s a good thing to see major scorers like Shawn Evans (32 points) and Curtis Dickson (18 points) racking up the scoring stats, the team will need to see each and every scorer firing on all cylinders, instead of just the select few, for the team to gain some serious ground in the Western standings.
Roughnecks transition specialist Geoff Snider knows that the team has what it takes to right the ship and get the team back to their winning ways once again.
“We’ve got all the tools and the character in our locker room to pull it together. It’s one of those things where we’re going to continue to figure out who we are and continue to push in the right direction.”
