Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - After sweeping their early two-game road trip to open the 2024-25 regular season, the Buffalo Bandits celebrated their banner-raising night in style with a 13-6 win over the Rochester Knighthawks at KeyBank Center.
Bandits forward Dhane Smith got the night of goal scoring started early, as he let a shot go of a rope right through Rochester goaltender Riley Hutchcraft just 22 seconds into the contest.
Despite a bit of a lull in the action after the opening goal, the Bandits remained poised, with goaltender Matt Vinc turning away anything thrown at him by the Knighthawks.
The reigning league MVP, Josh Byrne, got on the board less than six minutes later with a blazing shot through Hutchcraft to give Buffalo a 2-0 lead through the opening quarter of play.
The Bandits brought the same energy into the second quarter, as they ripped off four-consecutive goals within the first five minutes. Ian MacKay, Byrne, Kyle Buchanan, and Tehoka Nanticoke all scored to extend Buffalo's lead to 6-0 with 8:27 remaining in the half.
The scoring streak ended for Buffalo when former Bandits forward Connor Fields fired home the first goal of the evening for Rochester with 7:52 to go in the second quarter.
Little did the Bandits know, their lead began to shrink, as the Knighthawks went on to make it a 6-3 game thanks to goals from forward Ryan Smith and another from Fields.
Before the half concluded, Buffalo went to work on a power play chance, and it resulted in the first NLL goal for a local Western New York native. Clay Scanlan of Irving was able to put one through Hutchcraft to put the Bandits up 7-3 going into halftime.
After an opening power play goal from the Knighthawks just 1:01 into the third period, Buffalo was able to go on another scoring run with four more goals to close out the stanza. Goals from MacKay, Chase Fraser, Nanticoke, and Scanlan at the buzzer seemingly put the game out of reach at 11-4 with 15 minutes left to play.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams netting a pair of goals before the final horn.
There was nothing much that Rochester could do, as the Bandits remained dominant on both sides of the court. The 13-6 win for Buffalo helped the Bandits secure a third-straight win to open the season.
The Bandits will have a bye week next weekend before hosting longtime rival, the Toronto Rock, on Saturday, Jan. 10 at KeyBank Center. Faceoff from "Banditland" is slated for 7:30 p.m. EST, with play-by-play action available on The Bet 1520.