Bandits clinch top playoff seed

By Budd Bailey

Cross another item of the Buffalo Bandits to-do list for the current indoor lacrosse season.

The first was to qualify for the playoffs. They did that without much drama, mostly due to a 7-0 start.

The second was accomplished Saturday night. The Bandits wrapped up the No. 1 seed for the postseason with a 15-12 win over the Halifax Thunderbirds.

“It sounds amazing,” Dhane Smith said.

The sellout crowd, which helped the Bandits set an NLL single-season record for home attendance, watched the team improve to 13-4 on the season. Saskatchewan can still finish 13-5 by winning its last two games, but Buffalo still has the tiebreaker because of its win over the Rush on March 1.

This represented something of a playoff preview, since Halifax is still tied for third in the standings at 10-7 in spite of the loss. The Thunderbirds showed plenty of grit in a game that went back and forth for most of the night.

“Most of our losses have been one-goal games, except for maybe one of them,” Kyle Buchanan said. “You want to play tough lacrosse. You want to get those tough wins. It was nice to pull away in the fourth quarter.”

Coach John Tavares was particularly happy about the way his team cut down on the number of chances that Halifax had on turnovers.

“I thought we did a really good job of minimizing them on transition,” he said. “They are a really good transition team, and I don’t think they got any goals on transition and we got two or three.”

As usual, Buffalo’s standout players had big nights. Josh Byrne had three first-half goals on his way to an eight-point game, while Buchanan joined Byrne in the four-goal club for the night. If it’s possible to have a quiet 11-point game, Smith might have done that with his 10 assists.

Buchanan had a landmark moment along the way. He went past his career high in goals, scoring Nos. 31 through 34 for the season. That’s unusual for someone who is 37 years old, but he’s been a key contributor all season long.

“It’s easy to play with these guys, easy to buzz around this building with all the energy,” Buchanan said. “Personally, you look at your goals and assists and see what the team needs you to do. It’s true for the other guys as well. It goes with the flow of the offense. Some guys are getting more attention, and maybe it flips the opportunity. Maybe that’s what has happened to me. I’ve been fortunate to put the ball in the back of the net.”

“He’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever played with,” Smith said about Buchanan. “We work very well together. He always wants to play with me. I always want to play with him. As the years have gone on, we’ve built great chemistry. He does the little things that go unnoticed. He’s awesome in the locker room too.”

At the other end, goalie Matt Vinc finished with 51 saves on 63 shots on goal. That reflects a game that was somewhat wide-open after going more than 11 minutes from the start without either team scoring. You’re doing something right when the goalie’s save percentage is above .800.

Vinc’s fellow defenders reached milestones along the way. Paul Dawson picked up the 100th point of his long career. Second-year pro Cam Wyers scored the second NLL goal, and it came in a key situation. The tally came with less than four minutes left and gave the Bandits a three-goal lead, essentially wrapping up the game.  

“He’s a workhorse for us,” Tavares said about Wyers. “He’s had some chances through the year, but it’s nice to see him bury his opportunity. It turned out to be an important goal.”

There’s still one game left on the Bandits’ regular season schedule. It will be on Saturday night in Georgia, and there are plenty of angles to consider for that one. Buffalo will have nothing at stake in the game, so it might be a little tempting to rest some regulars – although some other teams would rather see the Bandits go all out against the Swarm. But this isn’t pro football, and it’s not as if there are a bunch of extra bodies around who can give the lacrosse equivalent of Josh Allen a rest in a meaningless game.

“That (the Georgia game) is when we are preparing for the playoffs, and we have to treat it like a playoff game,” Tavares said. “It might be Georgia that we’re playing (later).”

Then there’s the matter of Vinc, who is 42. He’s played a lot of minutes this season, so it becomes a question of how to have him ready to play at maximum effectiveness in the postseason.

“I can think about it all I want, but I want to keep Matt happy,” Tavares said about that decision. “I want him to be the best goalie he can be in the playoffs, so I want to do what’s best for him. I’ll talk to Matt about it. I can tell you that he’s going to want to play. I don’t blame him. It’s one game a week. … You want to keep him fresh in terms of getting shots. I’ll imagine he’ll start.”

The talk about next week can wait, of course. The Bandits have every reason to enjoy what they have accomplished; 13 wins are one off the franchise record for victories in the season.

Even better, the franchise wrapped up the league’s best record in the regular season for the 10th time in franchise history. The Bandits were formed in 1992, so they have been first overall almost a third of the time. That level of excellence is difficult to maintain, and the team and organization deserves credit for it.

Then again, it doesn’t mean a darn thing from here on. After all, Buffalo only has won a championship in four out of those previous nine first-place seasons.

“That’s the point for the team,” Tavares said. “That’s great, but the hardest part is yet to come. When you reach the finals, you want to capitalize because it’s hard to get there. Right now it doesn’t seem that way because we’ve been in four (finals) in a row. We’re at .500 - lost the first two and won the next two. It’s hard to get there because you don’t know when you’ll get back.”

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)