I haven’t done one of these in a while. I usually fold my thoughts about games I attend into the Awesome or Not Awesome section of my weekly report, but there was so much to say about this one that I split it out into its own report.

Buffalo / Toronto games are always a ton of fun. A bunch of Buffalo fans usually make the hour drive up from Buffalo for these games, and Saturday night was no exception. Bandits fans are loud, proud, and man, do they love their Bandits. The game itself was awesome, but what made it even more awesome were all those Buffalo fans. There were enough there to do their signature cheers (counting goals, B-O-X for penalties) with no help from Swennie, the Buffalo PA guy.

The game featured a strong first quarter by both goalies (1-0 Bandits after one), and with Nick Rose facing Matt Vinc, I wondered if we were in for one of those 8-7 games that went right down to the wire. Well, kind of yes (right down to the wire, mostly) and definitely no (it was 8-7 Bandits three minutes into the third quarter, and the rest of the game was also 8-7 Bandits). The Bandits took a strong 8-3 lead in the second quarter, keeping the Rock scoreless in the first and scattering three goals in the second, but then Toronto took some momentum into halftime with a big goal with two seconds left in the half. The Rock momentum grew in the third as Phil Mazzuca scored only eight seconds in, followed by Matthews and Boushy within a few minutes. Dhane Smith broke up the run but the Rock scored three more and had completed the comeback, taking their only lead of the game by the end of the third.

That lead lasted a little over five minutes before Buffalo went on a seven-goal run in eight minutes to put the game away. But wait! The Rock weren’t done yet. With the score 16-10 and less than two minutes left, the Rock mounted an impressive comeback attempt, with four goals in a minute and a half. If this game was 61 minutes long, we might have had quite a different outcome. But the second comeback fell short and the game ended with a 16-14 Bandits win, breaking the Rock’s undefeated record in 2024.

This game featured the season debut of Tom Schreiber, and I was curious how his first game with Mark Matthews was going to work out. Both of them can definitely be that quarterback that runs the offense, the straw that stirs the drink if you will, and Matthews has had that job so far this season. I wondered how things might work with two straws. The answer is… inconclusive. Similar to last week, there were times, especially early in the game, where I thought Matthews looked a bit lost. He’s always been great at no-look passes, particularly behind the back, and the defenders have no idea that he’s going to pass the ball, never mind where. On Saturday, he made a couple of passes where he probably should have looked, because there was nobody there. Also similar to last week, he looked a lot better in the second half, although there was at least one play where he had the ball, it was stripped away from him into the corner, and he just turned and started jogging towards the Rock bench. There were only maybe 5 seconds left on the shot clock, but another Rock player was in the corner and came up with the ball but couldn’t pass to Matthews up top for a last-second shot because he wasn’t there. I thought he gave up on the play a little early.

Schreiber looked like typical Schreiber, shooting around defenders, sometimes getting into the middle and taking a pounding, making pinpoint passes, attempting to break defenders’ ankles with that first step, and chasing down Buffalo transition players on breaks. He’s surprisingly fast and plays better than average defense for an offensive player.

None of the Bandits forwards really stood out to me as having a great game, except maybe Chase Fraser who continues to be a PITA for any opposing team, but they all played very well together. Of course, Byrne and Smith both had to dominate the Rock defenders’ attention, but then if Cloutier, Fraser or Nanticoke are able to get open, they can be just as deadly. The Bandits also got a lot of help from transition, with two goals each from MacKay and Priolo, and three assists from Nick Weiss.

Both goalies were excellent in the first quarter, though the Bandits didn’t get many shots away. Rose fell off a bit in the second as the Bandits got more shots off, but Vinc was still solid. Rose did certainly make some solid saves, but it was the Bandits excellent ball movement that hurt him – east, west, inside, outside, the ball was everywhere and some of those quicksticks would have been next to impossible for anyone to stop.

Other game notes:

• At the very end of the first quarter, Mitch de Snoo grabbed the ball in transition, realized there was a second or two left in the quarter, and fired a Hail Mary rocket from the far side of the centre line. The shot was right on target, and Vinc had to make a very good save to prevent a buzzer beater.
• The game featured a single goal in the first quarter, then eleven in the
  second and eleven in the fourth. So much for the goalie battle.
• The Rock got two penalties at the same time near the end of the third, one minor and one major. They managed to kill off an entire two minute 5-on-3, then almost the rest of the major, as the Bandits scored with about 15 seconds left in the second penalty. They say your goalie has to be your best penalty killer, and Rose was certainly excellent during the PK.
• One weird incident happened near the end of the game. The Rock scored to make it 16-12, and John Tavares threw the challenge flag. Technically, you’re not allowed to throw the challenge flag with less than two minutes left in the fourth, so I thought Buffalo should get a delay of game penalty for that. They didn’t, and the goal was reviewed. But it appears that Tavares was simply reminding the refs that the score difference was no longer five or more, so all goals within the last two minutes must be reviewed. He wasn’t saying “I request that you review the goal”, he was telling the refs “It’s your job to review the goal”, which is fair. It also allowed him to try to kill any Rock momentum in their unlikely-but-possible last-minute comeback.
• Right now the game sheet has Rose playing 59:58 of that game, but Troy Holowchuk definitely got some playing time in. Only a few minutes, but he runs faster than Rose, so it was Holowchuk running to and from the bench in the last few minutes whenever the Rock got or lost possession. None of the Bandits’ goals is listed as an empty-net goal, but two were scored while Holowchuk was racing towards the net. In both cases, he was on the floor and only a few feet away but was in no position to make the save, so they were really empty-net goals.