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Buffalo Bandits

Game Notes: January 28 at New York

January 28, 2023 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Buffalo Bandits News Release


Game Information

Buffalo @ New York

Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023

7:30 p.m. ET

Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Uniondale, New York

Regular-Season Records

Buffalo: 5-2 (5-2 vs. East)

New York: 1-4 (1-3 vs. East)

All-Time Series

- 3rd all-time meeting between Buffalo and the New York Riptide franchise.

- Buffalo is 1-1 all-time against New York (1-0 on the road).

This Season

This is the first of two matchups between Buffalo and New York this season.

BUFFALO BANDITS (5-2) AT NEW YORK RIPTIDE (1-4)

LAST TIME OUT

The Bandits defeated the Philadelphia Wings 13-9 last night on the road to improve to 5-2 on the season.

Kyle Buchanan opened the scoring less than a minute into the first quarter before the Wings scored three unanswered goals. The Bandits offense only connected for three goals in the first half and trailed the Wings 6-3 heading into the third quarter. The Bandits responded with six consecutive goals in the third quarter by Dalton Sulver (2), Buchanan, Tehoka Nanticoke, Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith.

Philadelphia would add two goals by the early stages of the fourth quarter to make it a one-goal game (9- 8).

Brad McCulley scored the 10th goal of the night for the Bandits at the 2:47 mark of the fourth quarter and the goal would ultimately stand as the game-winning goal. Buffalo scored three more goals, securing the 13-9 victory. Bandits goaltender Matt Vinc stopped 45 of the 54 shots he faced in the game. Smith finished the contest with a team-leading nine points (2+7).

TONIGHT'S MATCHUP

The Bandits and the Riptide will meet for the first time this season at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The two teams will play their second game against each other in Buffalo on April 15. Tonight's matchup marks the third meeting between the two teams and each club has won one game in the all-time series. Last season, the Bandits and the Riptide evenly split their two-game series.

LAST SEASON'S MATCHUP

The Bandits and the Riptide met twice last season, with each team winning one game. Buffalo's win against New York was an 18-17 overtime win on January 30 in New York. The Riptide defeated the Bandits by a 15-12 final score on April 19 at KeyBank Center.

Dhane Smith led the Bandits against the Riptide last season, recording 20 points (3+17) in the pair of games.

Josh Byrne posted nine points (6+3) against New York while Tehoka Nanticoke tallied eight points in two games (4+4). Matt Vinc finished the season series against the Riptide with 69 saves on 100 shots.

BACK-TO-BACK

Tonight, the Bandits will close out the 46th back-to back series in regular season franchise history. The Bandits hold a 52-39 all-time record in back-to-back games. 23 of Buffalo's wins in back-to-back series have come on the road. The Bandits record in the first game of a back-to-back series is 30-16 while the team holds a 22-23 all-time record in the second game of the series. The last time Buffalo won both games of a back-to-back was last season against the Halifax Thunderbirds on March 26 and 27, 2022. The Bandits won both games of that series by final scores of 16-11.

IN THE HISTORY BOOKS

Heading into the eighth game of the season, several Bandits have made moves to climb up the ranks in the franchise's all-time records while others are poised to make moves in the all-time franchise records.

Josh Byrne, who ranks seventh all-time in points for Buffalo (309), can tie Rich Kilgour (317) for sixth place all-time with eight more points.

Dhane Smith ranks third in Bandits franchise history in goals (321) and points (869). Earlier this season, Smith moved into second place in team history in assists (541). Last weekend against Rochester, Bandits goaltender Matt Vinc became the first player in NLL history to play 14,000 minutes in goal.

With seven more wins, Vinc would tie Steve Dietrich (47) for the most all-time wins in Bandits history. Head coach John Tavares currently ranks third all-time in team history with 40 head coaching wins. With six more wins, he would move into a tie with Troy Cordingley (46) for second all-time.

THE GREAT DHANE

Including his nine-point effort in last night's win against Philadelphia, Dhane Smith has totaled 11 goals and 40 assists for 51 points in seven games this season.

Smith leads the NLL in both assists and points.

The Kitchener, Ontario native who is in his 10th season with the Bandits, is the reigning NLL MVP after posting a league-high 135 points (41+94) in 2021-22

UPCOMING MILESTONES

Steve Priolo (188) needs three games played to tie Billy Dee Smith (192) for fourth place in all-time franchise games played.

Matt Vinc needs one game played to pass Anthony Cosmo for 9th place on the NLL's all-time list with 259.

Nick Weiss needs one game played to reach 100 games played with the Bandits. Weiss needs three points to reach 100 career points as a Bandit.

NEXT GAME

The Bandits will return to Buffalo for their next game on Saturday, Feb. 4 as the team is set to take on the Rochester Knighthawks at KeyBank Center at 7:30 p.m.

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