Editor’s Note: Thanks to the help of the innovative team at SISU Guard, the Official Mouthguard of the NLL, we’ve beefed up our National Lacrosse League coverage! We hope you enjoy our look at the 2016 NLL Playoffs through a new lens with the aid of our partner SISU, continuing with the Buffalo Bandits at the New England Black Wolves.
Despite a peculiar Monday night playoff situation, 3,697 fans packed into the Mohegan Sun Arena for Game 1 of the East Division Finals. The New England Black Wolves faithful showed up on a week night for the second playoff game in the team’s history, the first just a week prior when they capped the Swarm in the first round. The Buffalo Bandits were returning to the floor for the first time in a couple of weeks, after earning the bye by locking up the East Division’s top seed. New England earned their opportunity to host the battle by taking down Georgia the weekend prior in a 14-13 overtime thriller, also at home.
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How It Happened
From my eyes it appeared that Bandits came out a little rusty and it was the Black Wolves raising the eyebrows early, with some nice checks on the Buffalo shooters, a quick save from Evan Kirk and quality ball movement. The quick start translated into an off-hand goal for Kevin Buchanan less than two minutes in to kick the night off. New England laid a peppering into Anthony Cosmo in the early minutes, really trying to take advantage of early power play opportunities. We really only saw one shot from the Bandits offense in the first 4 and a half minutes before the Kevin Crowley was able to capitalize on the second power play attempt, putting the Wolves up 2-0. Not letting the visitors get a stick on it, the ball snuck around the defense on the following possession and from Kyle Buchanan’s stick and into the goal for their 3rd straight. At the first media break we saw a 3-0 Black Wolves lead meanwhile the Bandits had only managed to rattle off 2 shots the entire time.
The refs sat Derek Suddons a full 5-minutes for a High Stick and on the opening whistle Dhane Smith hit Ryan Benesch for a quick one-timer, closing the gap to 3-1. Following the first Buffalo goal, the gates opened and the teams took off to the races, pushing transition tempo both ways up and down the floor. The Bandits eventually ran down the Wolves penalty-kill unit and Alex Kedoh-Hill stood them up for the 2nd power play goal on the same violation, closing the gap to one. It didn’t take long for Mitch Jones and Ryan Benesch to work the give and go in transition to tie up the game, Jones burying the rock at the 5 minute mark. Defenseman Bill O’Brien caught a 2-minute Roughing charge which turned over the first Buffalo lead with an absolute laser from Dhane Smith from the top of the point. Banging the ball around, Kedoh-Hill came up with the ball in the middle of the floor un-pressured and cashed it in for the 5-3 lead, the last tally of the 1st frame.
Despite a handful of runs at the cage with a head full of steam, the captain Shawn Evans couldn’t find the back of the net in the entire 1st quarter. He didn’t let the streak last long registering the opening goal of the 2nd quarter on the power play, which the started the period up a man for 2 minutes. Putting silence to the idea of a Black Wolves rally, Kedoh-Hill racked up his hat trick scoring goal pulling the shot back in transition. Not to be outdone, Great Dhane pounded in two straight, the second running it back from defense, to give himself a hat trick as well and an 8-4 lead. A long 6 minutes passed until the Wolves got back on the board with a long strike by Pat Saunders from Evans to chip away at the deficit one last time before the half.
Continuing the charge, the Bandits started packing in the goals, starting just 30 seconds into the half with a connection from Chad Culp. A few minutes ticked by before Mark Steenhuis mailed in his only goal of the night, chasing Kirk from the net for the talents of Tye Belanger. Making sure the fresh meat didn’t have to wait long, Smith stepped in an let it fly on Belanger, ringing up the 3rd Buffalo goal of the half. The score would sit at 11-5 through a consistent defensive struggle until a Hold by Culp translated into a power play goal from Sheldon Burns running the floor, using a Brett Manney screen to cut the Bandits’ streak. With a little over 2 minutes left in the 3rd, Brett Bucktooth came up with a similar goal, sneaking behind another nice cutoff by Manney to sink a pinpoint shot on the short-side corner. The following face-off looked like a routine win back to the defense, but Kyle Buchanan had other plans, jumping his guy to come up with a ball on a clean breakaway to bury the last goal of the quarter, cutting the differential to three goals.
Strong defense on both ends of the floor staved off any decent attempts by either offense until the the New England possession following the media timeout turned to slop and Cosmo was able to connect with a streaking Kedoh-Hill for his 4th of the night, hitting Benesch off the boards for the textbook give and go. A ricocheted shot into the stands transformed into a beauty of an inbounds play when Evans hit Saunders right on the crease to get the Wolves back within three. Just a couple of minutes ticked off before Dhane Smith was given time and room and cashed in on Belanger near-side followed by moments later Benesch going full speed at the cage to get lead back to five.
The extended gap in the score and tight defense got the better of Shawn Evans and he went swinging on Andrew Watt and eventually tied up with Mitch de Snoo, all three found their way to the box along with Anthony Malcolm on an Unsportsmanlike for voicing his opinions. About a minute into that set of penalties, O’Brien drew a call for Checking from Behind which was met by a Dead Ball Contact foul from Billy Dee Smith drawing the Double Minor and Unsportsmanlike Conduct. The minor fiasco led to an enormous stoppage in play while the officials sorted it out and loaded up the sin bins. Back in action, Kyle Buchanan would come back once again for his Black Wolves with an extra attacker goal, stepping in with 2 minutes left trying to get anything going for his home side. Pulling the goalie early didn’t pay off for the Wolves, despite killing off the first Buffalo possession in front of the empty-net, an errant pass wound up netting a few Bandits sticks before Benesch finished the play and his hat trick with the final goal of the night, sealing the score at 15-10, Buffalo.
Cosmo held out the entire 60 minutes for the Win, making 45 saves on 55 shots on goal and powering through what looked to be a scary moment for the veteran goaltender when his leg got wrapped around the pipe after getting stuck on the opposing player while he was making a jump save. It’s hard to find Kirk at fault for the defensive woes of the Black Wolves early on. He still stopped 24 shots on 34 attempts, but Belanger was looking and playing the part on Saturday, only allowing 4 goals over his 26 and a half minutes, yet he was still served the Loss.
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Looking at Game 2 (+3)
Let’s make a big deal about Banditland. Why? Well maybe because they’ve regularly put up the NLL’s best attendance numbers and have averaged 15,833 fans per game in 2016. Ask anyone who’s spent time around the league, with that much intensity, there isn’t a harder barn to win in and Buffalo is 8-1 this year in Banditland! I repeat, 8-1 in Banditland! Obviously New England must accomplish more in one night than the rest of the NLL could do all season. They get 70 minutes to figure it out and from the looks of Monday night, it’s not going to be easy.
We knew going into Game 1 that Bandit face-off man Jay Thorimbert was going to weigh heavily on the outcome of the possession clock, but 21 of 28 is straight up dominance. As far as his opposition, Ryan Hotaling brought little to the table, only winning 8 of 23 (1 against Nick Weiss) while Stephen Hoar came up with a dismal 0 wins on 6 attempts. New England desperately needs to work out a way to plug Thorimbert on Saturday or they’ll be fighting uphill in a snowstorm all night long.
The last game of the season was a 5 goal win by Buffalo and they related the margin in the playoffs. Beating a time three times in a row is a hard feat for any group to accomplish, but the Bandits haven’t lost to the Wolves since January and they are playing with real consistency. If New England finds a way to advance to the Champion’s Cup, it will come by way of some of the most intense box lacrosse we’ve seen all year, I can almost guarantee it. Don’t miss the game this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on NLLtv.com, but I recommend checking it out first-hand if you’re anywhere near Western New York!
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Bandits
How the Black Wolves didn’t come out with more of an answer for the tandem of Dhane Smith (5+2) and Ryan Benesch (3+6) is beyond me. Dhane was repeatedly given time and room to dismantle the defense and Benesch was flying around the floor as he pleased. The hat trick from Benesch along with Smith’s quintet accounted for just over half of the team’s goals and Alex Kedah-Hill came in hot with an unexpected four goals of his own.
In most arguments it’s been Dhane Smith versus Shawn Evans for the NLL Most Valuable Player, and while you can see clearly what Evans has done for New England, the two are going head to head to send their squads to the Champion’s Cup and it’s Smith putting up the MVP numbers while Evans came up with a single goal and a pair of assists in the loss.
So who’s your pick for the MVP? Did Evans do more to turn around the Black Wolves in 2016 to earn the honor or should Smith win it with ease with his 72 goals and 59 assists? C’mon and let us know in the comments down below!
