By Budd Bailey
Houston Rockets basketball coach Rudy Tomjanovich once said of his two-time NBA title-holders, “Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion.”
We learned on Saturday night that the principle also applies to indoor lacrosse teams.
The Buffalo Bandits, the NLL’s defending champion, were going uphill most of the night in their game with the Toronto Rock, the league’s best team. There were all sorts of times when the Bandits looked ready to fall to 6-7 for the season.
But somehow, someway, they came up with a 14-12 victory. By regular-season standards, this was absolutely fabulous entertainment.
“That was so much fun. It never gets old,” Dhane Smith added. “It’s a big rivalry, playing in front of thousands and thousand of fans, especially at home. They’re a great team, we’re a great team. We don’t like each other. That’s what’s fun about it.”
“The guys played a full 60 minutes tonight,” coach John Tavares said. “Right from Matty (Vinc, the goalie), the defense, transition, offense – I thought it was one of our best games. Definitely it was one of our best second halves.”
In particular, the final minutes were as dramatic as it gets in the sport, at least in March. Buffalo had gone more than 24 minutes in the middle of the game without scoring, and still trailed by a 10-7 score with 16 minutes left. The Bandits tied the game with three goals in a little over six minutes, only to give up two goals in 48 seconds to fall behind by 12-10.
No problem. Buffalo simply scored the last four goals of the game to beat Toronto (now 11-3) and advance to 7-6 on the year. It was a gut check for a team that had only shown flashes of the squad that swept through most of last season like a hurricane.
“Great teams never think they are out of a game,” Tavares said. “You had that feeling. You’ve got to believe you can win. The guys stayed positive and kept going.”
The list of heroes was a long one. Ian MacKay bounced back from getting clobbered into the boards late in the third period (a hit good for a five-minute major) to get the Bandits within one. Chris Cloutier followed a couple of minutes later to tie the contest. With 3:32 left, Josh Byrne – who had been held down by the Toronto defense for most of the night – struck for the game-winner. And Nick Weiss added the empty-netter with 19 seconds to go to make sure the 18,463 in attendance would have a happy walk back to their cars in a steady rainstorm. Byrne and Dhane Smith checked in with seven points each, while Weiss and Cloutier had four.
“We had to be on the right side of the emotional scale, and it felt like we were in the box early but we settled down and it showed,” Smith said. “We’re not the Bandits from last year, but we’re still a good team. We have to find our roles and fine a different way to win. We won those close games last year but lost them this year. We just have to keep building.”
Need some other names? Vinc absolutely slammed the door in the final eight minutes to prevent a Toronto comeback. He finished with 48 saves on 60 shots, right at the .800 save percentage that is usually the mark of a fine night’s work.
Faceoff specialist Connor Farrell played with a 102-degree fever, although he probably should have stayed home and rested. He was only 9 for 31 on faceoffs, but some of those wins were important pieces of the puzzle.
“I was happy he was in the lineup,” Tavares said. “He got off to a slow start, but he won some important draws at the end of the game for us. That was huge.”
The best story, though, might belong to the new No. 6 on the Bandits. Paul Dawson was acquired from the Colorado Mammoth in a deal involving draft choices earlier in the week. Buffalo’s defense has looked leaky at times this season, and Dawson turned up to provide leadership and stability.
“The last couple of years in this league, we’re struggled on a couple of teams that haven’t been great,” he said. “As an athlete, all’s you want to do is have that chance to win. Coming here, I knew this team could do some damage, so I was super-excited. It was awesome. This is why you play games like this.”
It was an odd experience for Dawson just to walk out on to the field wearing Bandits’ colors. At 38, he’s spent many a night showing up in opposing uniforms.
“It’s no secret that this is one of the best barns to play in,” Dawson said. “Usually there’s booze and stuff thrown at me, so it was nice to be on the other side hearing cheers. Coming out of the tunnel, I didn’t know what it was going to be like, because I’m not exactly a guy who makes friends on the lacrosse field. It was nice to get welcomed with open arms.”
Tavares added, “It’s not easy to come in to a new team and take on a role. But he’s a vet, he has a very calming poise, and I think he helped the defense quite a bit. We have a lot of young guys who need some leadership.”
The playoff situation is scrambled because there are no divisions and good competitive balance this season. Let’s simplify it. Only five teams have more than Buffalo’s seven wins, and eight make the playoffs. The Bandits will play four of the final five games on the road, but everyone on the schedule has a losing record. Keep winning without major stumbles, and they’ll be fine.
If this game really shifted the team’s course, it will have every opportunity to sail into the playoffs with some momentum. The answer will begin to be known on Friday night at Panther City (Fort Worth, Texas).
“I truly believe that anybody can beat anybody in this league,” Tavares said. “You have to show up every night. You can’t take anyone for granted. You can’t look at the standings and say, ‘They’re an eighth-place team; we’re going to win.’ You can’t do that. There are a lot of great teams and great players. With this united division, every game is like a playoff game for us.”
(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)
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