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NLL Buffalo Bandits

Ten-Goal Second Quarter Helps Bandits Remain Atop the NLL Standings in 19-14 Win

January 18, 2025 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Buffalo Bandits News Release


Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith had 12 and 10 points, respectively, in the win over second-place Philadelphia.

In a matchup between the top two teams in the National Lacrosse League, the Buffalo Bandits and the Philadelphia Wings, Buffalo made it quite clear who's No. 1 with a 19-14 win Saturday at KeyBank Center.

The Bandits took charge with a 10-goal second quarter and carried a 13-5 lead into halftime. While Philadelphia flexed some of its muscle in the second half, outscoring Buffalo 9-6, the Bandits still comfortably won their fifth game of the season.

Buffalo's Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith reminded everyone why they own the top two totals for points in a season, recording 12 (7+5) and 10 (1+9) points, respectively; Byrne tied his career high in points while Smith set a new season high in assists.

"Both of them are triple threats," said Bandits head coach John Tavares. "They can score from the outside, score from the inside and they can also pass the ball. To add onto that, they're both athletic enough to get back and play some defense. They study the game. They prepare themselves very well and they want to be the best and that's why they're two of the best."

From the onset of the game, the Bandits proved to be the better team. They led for all but the opening 2:04 and, a third of the way into the contest, held an 8-1 lead.

Byrne scored the first two goals for the Bandits before a Matt Spanger blocked shot allowed Cam Wyers to get his first career goal. Wyers got behind the Philadelphia defenders, received the outlet pass from Spanger, went coast-to-coast untouched and scored, making it 3-0.

The NLL points leader going into Week 8, Joe Resetarits, scored the first goal for the Wings with less than a minute left in the first quarter. That two-goal deficit was the closest Philadelphia would get to tying the game.

To begin the second quarter, the Bandits jumped on Wings goalkeeper Nick Damude with three goals in 1:14 - that included Byrne's third goal, which completed a hat trick and forced the Wings to make a change in net. However, this didn't stop the barrage of Buffalo goals as Byrne and Paul Dawson scored two more to make the score 8-1 before the 10-minute mark of the second quarter.

"Everything was going right," Chase Fraser said. "Everybody was in sync tonight and the ball was finding the back of the net."

Philadelphia scored a couple to make it 8-3, but the Buffalo offense continued pressuring; Byrne, Ian MacKay and Smith scored three unanswered goals in a span of 1:08 and extended the Bandits' lead to 11-3.

MacKay's goal, his 14th goal of the season, came on a hidden-ball trick. He kept the ball on the fake flip and fooled Damude's replacement, Deacan Knott, who left the right side of the net open.

Twenty-two seconds later, Chris Cloutier, in his first game back from injury, scored the 13th goal for Buffalo.

"(What helped us in the second quarter) was a lot of the seals and a lot of the picks that guys were setting for guys like Josh to create a lot of confusion," Tavares said. "When he was shooting, he was picking corners, and he just couldn't miss, and the reason was because he had time to shoot."

Philadelphia scored with four seconds left in the half to make it 13-5 going into the break.

The 13-goal first half, which included 10 in the second quarter, saw every player on the Bandits roster record a point besides for Matt Vinc and Sam La Roue.

Fraser scored his second goal to open the second half and extend the Bandits' lead to 14-5. The Wings responded with two consecutive goals, narrowing the deficit to seven.

Fraser and Byrne then scored back-to-back, giving Fraser a hat-trick and Byrne a career-high-tying seventh goal. The lead was once again nine goals with three and a half minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The Wings kept pushing, scoring six unanswered goals to make it 16-13 between the 2:16 mark of the third quarter and the 11:55 mark of the fourth quarter.

"Coming out of the half, the message was that what we did to them in the first half, they can do to us," Tavares said. "They have that type of offense. They have a lot of great shooters that can put the ball in the net in bunches and they did."

MacKay answered with his second goal, making it 17-13 before the Wings punched right back to make the lead three again. The comeback attempt stalled due to Wings penalties, as Cloutier and Nanticoke scored back-to-back goals to make the Bandits' lead, now 19-14, insurmountable.

"I was hoping that it wasn't going to be that close, but it ended up being closer than we'd like," Tavares said. "Again, we found a way to win and that's what matters."

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