Even solid defence and goaltending and a well-disciplined effort wasn’t enough for the Toronto Rock against the Buffalo Bandits.
The two-time defending National Lacrosse League champions erased an early 5-0 deficit and beat the Rock 13-12 at Paramount Fine Foods Centre on Friday. Buffalo improved to 7-0 with the win, keeping the possibility alive that the Bandits may not only complete the hat trick of titles, it may just run the table doing it.
“We had a decent lead in the third quarter,” Rock goaltender Nick Rose said. “We were playing solid but mistakes were adding up in the second half. We had some tough penalties called against us.”
“It was very similar to a lot of the games we have with them where they find a way to make one more play than us.”
The two teams previously met in Buffalo last month with the Bandits winning 15-13 and Friday’s contest was very similar in terms of quality. But time and again, Buffalo shows that its chemistry is so good on both sides of the floor, they can turn the switch on and get a win seemingly at will.
With some outstanding work from Rose, two goals from Josh Dawick and singles from Corey Small, Chris Boushy and Mitch de Snoo, Toronto built a solid lead after one. The Bandits got three back in the second with Kyle Buchanan scoring twice and Chris Cloutier adding another.
TD Ierlan cashed in after winning the faceoff seven seconds into the third and Dawick completed his hat trick later in the period but two goals from Chase Fraser and more scoring from Buchanan and Cloutier sent the game to the fourth tied 7-7. Boushy and Tom Schreiber gave the Rock a two-goal lead early in the fourth but after Boushy took a five-minute major for an illegal body check, the Bandits took over with three goals from reigning NLL most-valuable player Dhane Smith and one each from Cloutier, Tehoka Nanticoke and Ian MacKay.
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Schreiber scored his second goal during the quarter and while de Snoo and Dan Craig scored in the final two minutes to bring the game to within one, that was as close as the home side would get as goaltender Matt Vinc stopped both Boushy and Craig from in close in the final seconds. The game features several skirmishes including one at the end of the game.
As for the Rock, the record is now 3-7 and if it is to enter the post-season tournament, it may take a 6-2 finish to do it.
“It’s super-frustrating losing games,” Rose said. “But we have a lot of belief in the dressing room.”
“We’ve won a lot of games the past few years and this is a bit of a different season where we’ve got to go through some tough times and start to build character. It’s the NLL. It’s tough every week.”
The Rock will try to start the road to salvaging its season next Saturday in Mississauga against the Georgia Swarm.