By: Joseph Keyser
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Bandits fell 14-13 to the San Diego Seals in an Avengers: Infinity War-esque ending on Marvel Night, just one night after completing a miraculous comeback against Toronto.
This loss snapped an 11-game winning streak, which was the second-longest in team history. The last time the Bandits lost was March 22, 2024 against Panther City.
Buffalo transition Ian MacKay and forward Josh Byrne each scored three goals in the contest. Byrne's goals move him to fourth in the league, tied with Rochester's Ryan Smith, in goals this season.
"I don't want to use the excuse of 'it's back-to-back nights,'" Bandits head coach John Tavares said. "It just happens in this league that we don't have many of them. But, the guys are in great shape."
For the second night in a row, the Bandits went down big in the first quarter. San Diego forward Ben McIntosh snuck the first goal of the evening on a shot to the bottom right corner of the net.
The Bandits thought they struck back, until a Seals challenge reversed what would've been a Dhane Smith goal.
San Diego forward Wesley Berg scored his team’s second goal of the night when he shot a midrange shot that hit the top left corner of the net.
About 40 seconds after Berg’s goal, transition Ben McIntosh scored a long shot from the white line.
Unsatisfied with the three-goal lead, Berg scored his second goal of the evening, sneaking a bouncer through Matt Vinc’s legs.
"Being behind and fighting is tiring and takes away from you," MacKay said. "But in both nights, I'm proud of how we continued to fight back."
Determined to get his team back into the game, Smith scored his team’s first goal of the night with eight seconds left in the quarter.
Just seven seconds into the second quarter, Currier scored his second goal of the evening, extending the San Diego lead to 5-1.
The Seals had a sizeable lead, but Byrne had other plans for the night. Byrne scored two goals in under 30 seconds to cut that lead in half.
Bandits forward Kyle Buchanan didn’t want to be left out of the scoring fun, as he sunk the third goal in a row for Buffalo.
McIntosh became the third player on the Seals squad to rack up multiple goals, bringing the score to 6-4 San Diego, with 9:16 remaining in the half.
MacKay cut the lead back down to one when he scored his first goal of the game just 35 seconds later.
Bandits face-off specialist Connor Farrell scored his first goal as a Bandit, unassisted, with 8:30 left in the half to bring the game to its first tie score.
Video courtesy of @NLLBandits on X.
"I don't really remember it because it was so loud," Farrell said. "It was so loud I couldn't hear the whistle on the next face-off. It was a really cool experience."
"Other than winning championships, that may be the loudest I've heard it in here," MacKay said.
Seals forward Rob Hellyer scored a pair of goals, putting his team back in front.
At the end of the half, San Diego outshot Bufalo 25-22 and led 8-6.
Byrne scored his hat trick goal with 13:33 left in the third quarter.
Bandits defender Steve Priolo and transition Nick Weiss got called for 2-minute minors, resulting in Buffalo going down two. During this time, Seals forward Dylan Watson scored his first goal of the day, extending his team's lead to 9-7.
Bandits forward Chris Cloutier got himself involved in the scoring with 6:52 remaining in the third to cut the Buffalo deficit to one.
Berg scored his hat trick goal of the night during a transitional break, diving into the crease.
Not one minute later, Seals transition Tre Leclair and defender Matthew Wright got a pair of penalties, putting Buffalo up two men.
The Bandits took advantage of the man-advantage they had with a pair of goals on the power play. MacKay and Buchanan each scored their second goals of the night to tie the game at 10.
Watson became the fifth Seal of the night to score two or more goals when he regained the lead for his team with 2:43 left in the quarter.
Down 10-11 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Bandits were on the power play and took advantage. MacKay scored his third goal of the night to tie the game, sinking the ball in the top left corner of the net with 13:50 left in the game.
Smith joined the multiple-goal club to give his squad its first lead of the game when he sunk one top-left with 10:17 remaining.
Weiss gave the Bandits a two-goal lead for the first time in the game when he scored his team's 13th goal of the day on a fast break.
Berg scored his fourth of the night on an athletic leap-across, backside-shot that snuck into the top-left corner of the net.
With 39.4 seconds left in the fourth, Berg would've scored his fifth goal of the night to tie it up at 13 apiece if not for his teammate being in the crease during the play.
The Bandits got the ball back after the would-be goal and took a long offensive possession that resulted in no goals.
With less than :15 left in regulation, San Diego was able to make a good offensive push, and Currier scored with 5.4 seconds remaining.
Berg sunk his fifth goal in a very similar fashion to his fourth, leaping across the crease, left to right, but this time dropping the ball in the bottom left to end it.
Video courtesy of @SealsLax on X
Buffalo (7-1) remains in first place in the NLL standings and San Diego (5-5) is now tied for eighth.
The Bandits and Seals play again on Feb. 22 in San Diego at 10 p.m. EST. You can watch that matchup on ESPN+ or NLL+.
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