By: Jonpaul D'agostino
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Bandits welcomed the Philadelphia Wings to KeyBank Center on Saturday night. The Bandits looked dominant for the first 40 minutes, and their lead just held up as a late run from the Wings wasn't enough, giving Buffalo a 19-14 win.
“I was hoping that it wasn't going to be that close, but it ended up being closer than we like,” Bandits head coach John Tavares said. “But again, we found a way to win, and that's what matters.”
Despite Buffalo having a 16-7 lead in the late third quarter, Philadelphia rallied their troops, going on a six-goal run early in the fourth quarter. Both teams traded goals until the score was 17-14 Bandits, the closest it was all night. Forward Chris Cloutier sunk a left-handed shot between the legs of the Wings goalie Nick Damude to seal it. Philadelphia defenseman Alex Pace committed two penalties during the goal, removing him from the remainder of the game, and giving the Bandits a power play to close it out.
"Chris is a great goal scorer, he's a pure goal scorer, it's nice to have him back in the lineup," Tavares said. "One thing he knows how to do is to put the ball in the net from anywhere."
Bandits forward Josh Byrne led both teams in goals and points with seven goals and 12 points (seven + five).
“You hear guys like Steph Curry, Lebron, it's like a flow state,” Byrne said. “You're not pressing, you’re not trying too hard. It's like everything is working.”
Byrne set a new personal record this game, beating his previous high goals in a game mark of six. However, falling short of the team record eight goals in a game.
Forward Dhane Smith was a key player for the Bandits this game, as he led the team in assists with nine and ended up finishing second overall in points scored with 10 (one + nine).
"It helps to get in a groove, we've had however many bye weeks so far, so it's been hard to get into it," Bandits transition Ian MacKay said. "Being able to go back-to-back or three games now in a row, it helped me get my groove in that game."
The Bandits outshot the Wings 62-50 on the night.
The first quarter was a strong one for the bandits, but Philadelphia was not yet out of reach, as both teams had the same number of turnovers at five.
It started with Byrne recovering a loose ball, then moving to make an unassisted left-handed shot that landed in the bottom right of the net to score the first point of the game for either team and his 10th goal of the year.
Coming off assists from transition Thomas Whitty and forward Chase Fraser, Byrne continued his assault and laid on with a left-handed shot that hit the bottom left of the net.
13 minutes into the first, Buffalo had committed a roughing penalty, causing forward Tehoka Nanticoke to head to the box, giving Philadelphia the numbers advantage.
Philadelphia took advantage of the power play, with forward Joe Resetarits scoring his first goal with assists from Wings forward Mitch Jones and Blaze Riorden.
The second half was an explosion of points by the Bandits, scoring 10 goals compared to Philadelphia's four.
Philadelphia entered the second quarter down 3-1, the closest score of the first three quarters. The Bandits acted quickly to pile up the points, going on a 5-0 goal run in a little under five minutes.
"Always calmness on the bench with the type we are," MacKay said. "Everybody trusts each other."
A little over 90 seconds into the quarter, Fraser started the action coming off a pass from Nanticoke, taking a right-handed shot that landed in the bottom left of the net, making the score 4-1 Bandits.
Byrne was a driving force behind the scoring run, with him scoring two of the five goals during the run. The first one from Cloutier and Smith put him in position where he scored off a left-handed shot that ended up hitting the middle left of the net to give him a hat trick on the night.
Team captain Steve Priolo got in the action after passes from transition Nick Weiss, and Byrne. Priolo took a low right-handed shot that hit the crease, upping the score to 6-1 Bandits.
Byrne hit his second shot of the run on a low left-handed shot, with assists coming from fellow forwards Kyle Buchanan and Clay Scanlan.
Defenseman Paul Dawson followed off a nice assist from forward Cam Wyers, scoring the final goal of the run on a right-handed shot that hit the bottom left of the net.
With the score at 8-1, the game was beginning to look out of reach for Philadelphia, however, they kept fighting.
Following a holding call with 9:48 to play in the quarter, Sam La Roue was sent to the box, giving Philidelphia a power play. Forward Blaze Riorden landed a nice shot behind the goalie, only 17 seconds later, ending the Bandits' unanswered scoring run.
Less than a minute later, Sam LeClair gave the Wings another shot of life, hitting a right-handed shot that bounced between two Bandits players to end up in the net to make it 8-3.
The Bandits answered back by scoring 3 goals in under 90 seconds.
With 5:24 left in the quarter, Byrne got off a low left-handed shot to start the scoring run, with Chase Fraser giving him the assist.
Only 13 seconds later, transition Ian MacKay added on with a long shot attempt into the bottom left corner of the goal, with Connor Farrell being credited with the assist.
Smith pulled off a shot fake to fool the goalie and hit a right-handed shot that bounced
in the bottom left of the crease to add to the Bandits' dominance.
Resetarits tried to dig his team out of the hole they were in, hitting a shot to make it 11-4 while being assisted by Wings transition Tony Malcom and defenseman Isaiah Davis-Allen.
The Bandits answered back by continuing to pile on goals, with two goals 22 seconds apart from each other starting with another from Byrne, once again being assisted by Smith, as well as Dylan Robinson. Chris Cloutier finished it off with a nice left-handed goal.
With just four seconds left in the quarter, Sam LeClair with a right-handed over-the-top shot that went through the five-hole gave the Wings something to build off after halftime being down 13-5.
The third quarter seemingly was when Philidelphia found its groove, as they finally ended up outsourcing the Bandits with a 5-3 goal difference.
The quarter started out favoring Buffalo, as the Bandits scored only 25 seconds in with a left-handed shot that landed in the bottom of the crease from Fraser.
However, the Wings answered in kind with Holden Cattoni aiming for the top left of the net and sinking it with a left-handed shot following assists by Resetarits and defenseman Liam Patten, to make it 14-6 Bandits.
For the Bandits, another holding call against Sam La Roue with 5:58 left to play in the quarter earned him another box trip, and for the Wings another power play. Wings forward Phill Caputo made his mark by scoring on a right-handed shot.
With 2:16 left to play in the third quarter, the Wings started a 6-0 scoring run that bled into the fourth quarter.
Cattoni's second goal was the one that started the run, as well as being assisted by Resetartis again.
With only 45 seconds left in the quarter, Jones once again was involved in the Wings stat sheet, scoring the second goal of the run, despite being smothered by three Bandits and being able to land a shot to slightly cut the deficit his team faced, Resetarits and Caputo got the assists.
25 seconds later, Jones was credited with an assist, along with Cattoni, as Riordan sunk an over-the-top shot between the five-hole.
"If you don't get back on defensive transition, they get a goal that way," MacKay said. "That just totally boosts their energy, and you just want to shut that down, you don't want to give any opportunities to build momentum."
The fourth quarter showed that the early beatdown from the Bandits was not how they wanted to play the game.
The quarter saw the Wings start on a 3-0 run until MacKay scored the Bandit's 17th goal of the night.
With the win, the Bandits remain undefeated at 5-0. Philadelphia falls to 4-2 on the year with the loss.
The Bandits will play next Saturday, Feb. 1, as they will host a fellow N.Y. team in the Albany Firewolves. Start time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
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