Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - A fourth quarter offensive explosion from the visiting Calgary Roughnecks was plenty to down the Buffalo Bandits at KeyBank Center on Saturday, 17-11.
The Bandits took the first lead of the night, as Dhane Smith kickstarted the night with a close range goal with help from Josh Byrne and Kyle Buchanan.
It was a milestone goal for Smith, as he tallied his 400th career goal in the National Lacrosse League.
Ian MacKay followed that up about three-and-a-half minutes later with an unassisted goal on a fastbreak.
However, the Roughnecks struck twice before the end of the first quarter with Tanner Cook netting a pair of goals, including one with 1:02 to go on the clock to even the score at 2-2.
Similar to the first quarter, the Bandits jumped out quickly with a pair of goals from Byrne and Tehoka Nanticoke with 10:37 remaining in the quarter.
Cook completed the hat-trick to put the game back to within one again, before Byrne scored just 57 seconds later to restore the two-goal advantage.
However, Calgary's utilized a three-goal run to take its first lead of the night with goals from Tyler Hendrycks, Curtis Dickson and Brayden Mayea with 2:28 remaining in the first half.
With just over 30 seconds remaining in the half, Smith tallied his second of the night to even the score at 6-6..
With the clock winding down in the half, the Roughnecks were able to take a 7-6 lead into the locker room thanks to a goal from Dickson with 2.2 seconds remaining on the clock.
Kyle Buchanan opened the scoring in the second half, as he let a shot go that caught the top corner of the net. Buchanan's goal knotted the score at 7-7 with 9:26 remaining in the third quarter.
Three minutes later, Calgary took the lead back with a power play goal from the longtime Roughnecks forward Jesse King. The Roughnecks then took their first multi-goal advantage 55 seconds later with Dickson completing the hat-trick.
Buchanan responded moments later with a breakaway goal, taking advantage of a turnover off a faceoff to cut the deficit to 9-8.
Nanticoke then put on some moves in order to secure Buffalo its game-tying goal. After a spin-o-rama to dodge the Calgary defense, Nanticoke cashed in a shorthanded goal to even the score at 9-9 with 3:07 remaining in the third quarter.
With 58 seconds remaining in the quarter, the Roughnecks took the lead again with Dickson netting his fourth goal of the contest.
The fourth quarter mostly belonged to the Roughnecks, beginning with King finding the back of the net again just 58 seconds into the final 15 minutes of play.
The Bandits quickly answered with a perfectly executed one-timer goal from Chase Fraser on the quick-feed from Byrne.
Just 29 seconds later, though, Dickson struck gold again with a top shelf goal to give the Roughnecks a 12-10 lead. Calgary extended its lead to 13-10 thanks to another goal from King, his third of the night.
The Bandits stopped the bleeding momentarily as Clay Scanlan scored at the top of the Calgary crease to cut the Buffalo deficit to two again.
That'd be the end of the scoring for the night for Buffalo, though, as the Roughnecks closed out the game on a 4-0 run to run away with the contest. A sixth goal of the game from Dickson, two more goals from Mayea and one more from King helped Calgary secure a 17-11 win on the road in "Banditland".
Despite the loss, the Bandits remain in first place in the NLL standings with a 9-2 record. As for the Roughnecks, the win helped improve their record to above .500 at 7-6.
The Bandits next travel to Calgary to complete the home-and-home series with the Roughnecks next Saturday. Faceoff from the Scotiabank Saddledome is set for 9 p.m.