Bandits are on a losing streak

By Budd Bailey

It obviously was no time to take a penalty.

The Buffalo Bandits were hanging on to an 11-10 lead over the Vancouver Warriors with less than seven minutes left in Saturday night’s game. That when the Warriors worked a nice give-and-go play from Adam Charalambides to Ryan Martel, who scored from close range against Bandits’ goalie Matt Vinc. Tie ballgame.

But that’s not all that happened. Dylan Robinson of the Bandits dove into the grounded Martel with a high cross-check a moment later. That drew a major penalty, as senseless violence usually is punished by the officials – even on “Wrestling Night” at the sold-out KeyBank Center. The call gave the Warriors five minutes to score the go-ahead goal.

They only needed 79 seconds. Charalambides scored on the ensuing power play to give Vancouver the lead. It held up as the Warriors captured a 13-12 victory over the Bandits.

It was rather easy to see what the problem was as the Bandits went on their first losing streak of the season, having lost last week in Albany. Buffalo was called for two major penalties on the night – Nick Weiss picked up a major for roughing in the second period – and gave up three goals. That doesn’t include a short-handed goal by Vancouver along the way as well. In a close, tough contest, the Bandits simply couldn’t afford to do that.

“They capitalized on their opportunities,” Buffalo coach John Tavares said. “We can’t be taking stupid penalties like that. … We’ve got to be more disciplined.”

You might have been able to do that against some of the previous teams from Vancouver over the years. Since the franchise landed in British Columbia in 2014, it has never had a winning season. But the Warriors’ win was their third in a row to move to 8-7. That puts them right in the middle of the playoff fight in the National Lacrosse League standings. Adding goalie Christian Del Bianco, the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2023 in a trade with Calgary earlier this season certainly has helped.

“Obviously no excuses, but they are playing desperate,” Tavares said. “Our guys are playing hard, but they have a lot more on the line than we do. We’re trying to wrap up that first playoff spot. It’s a tough league and there’s a lot of parity. It doesn’t matter where they are in the standings; it’s going to be a tight tough game.”

Keegan Bal was the major offensive force for Vancouver. He finished with four goals and six assists for 10 points. You might not know the name well, but Bal is in the top ten in the league in scoring this year. He was the best player on the field Saturday night.

“He’s a great player, and if you leave his hands free to shoot like that anytime in the game, it’s a good look for him,” said Ian MacKay of the Bandits, who led his team with three goals.  

At the other end, Del Bianco stopped 40 of 52 Bandit shots in a solid performance.

“I wish he was still sitting on his couch (as a holdout),” MacKay quipped. “It’s good to see him back in the league and playing. … Kudos to Vancouver for making that move to get him.”

On the other side, the Bandits’ offense hasn’t been quite as sharp as it was in the early going. The unit was a five-headed monster early in the season, meshing smoothly to produce goals almost on demand. There were a few stretches like that on Saturday night, such as a four-goal run in the middle of the second half that turned a 9-7 deficit to an 11-9 lead. On the other hand, Buffalo only scored one goal in the final 22 minutes of the first half.

It could be argued that the Bandits haven’t had that much of a drop-off from the start of the season. Last week, it took a little more than eight minutes of overtime – the second-longest game in team history – before Albany squeezed out a win. This week, Buffalo came ever-so-close to tying the game in the final seconds … and then who knows what might happen in overtime?

“If we win by one, there’s no issues,” Tavares said. “If we lose by one or two, there are a lot of issues. You’re looking for reasons, looking for excuses. Just put the ball in the net.”

On the other hand, the lines between winning and losing are absolute, and they don’t lie.

“I saw a stat before the game – we were 7-0 to start the year and now we’re 4-4 (since then),” MacKay said. “Obviously we’re not where we want to be, especially going toward the playoffs. The good thing about that is that we have three games going in. We know we’re in a playoff spot, and now we want to get a better seed and play before sold-our crowds. We’ve got to look in the mirror and hopefully regroup.”

The Bandits head to Colorado for their next game on Saturday night.

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)