Bandits 2011 home opener

An air of excitement filled the HSBC arena Saturday night, as the cross border rivals Toronto Rock were in town to help the Buffalo Bandits open their 2011 home schedule. As the 16,685 fans, mostly clad in orange or black, made their way to their seats the excitement grew and exploded on the first note from the bagpipes. As the image on the big screen of a solo bagpiper zoomed out to reveal several more bagpipers and a drummer leading the Bandits to the floor, the fans got even louder. From this point one could tell it was going to be an entertaining game.

After a slight delay waiting for the signal to start the game, it began. And what a beginning it was for the Bandits. In under two minutes the home side was up 3-0 on goals by John Tavares, Chad Culp and Brett Bucktooth. Almost a minute later the Rock got on the board with Blaine Manning’s first of two goals and before long the game was knotted at 3. The first quarter ended with Buffalo holding a 4-3 lead.

The second quarter was back and forth and by the end the Bandits held tight to their one goal lead despite Colin Doyle scoring three in the quarter for the Rock. The third quarter was all Buffalo. They held the Rock scoreless in the quarter while netting three themselves and chasing Bob Watson from Toronto’s net. Just over a minute into the third period Buffalo opened a five goal lead but, similar to Toronto the previous night, they couldn’t put the game away.

Whether it was Toronto’s defense picking up their game or Buffalo’s sudden inability to make a cross floor pass in the offensive end that was the cause, the Bandits couldn’t seem to get a quality shot on Campbell. On the other side of the floor, the Rock seemed unstoppable as Garrett Billings and Blaine Manning took over feeding passes that ended up in the back of the net. This quarter it was sophomore Stephen Leblanc as the beneficiary of the Billings-Manning passes more times than not as he scored a hat trick the saw the game tied at 14.

With ten seconds left the Bandits won their fourth face-off and immediately called a time out leaving just over 7 seconds on the clock. Tavares lead the charge down the field but his shot was deflected out of play. After some quality chances by the Rock in overtime it was Scott Self scoring on a breakaway just over four minutes into the extra frame to win the game for the home side.

The game overall was extremely entertaining, well, with the exception of the numerous and lengthy reviews, but was not necessarily a good one. Can a game be called good when both coaches were yelling at the refs throughout the game? I am not sure how coach Cordingly didn’t get tossed from the game; he was inches from stepping onto the floor at one point near the end of the fourth quarter. The refs missed many calls, and I’m talking about obvious penalties where a ref was clearly watching the play, and called some soft penalties that must have left the opposing team chuckling.

There were times when my mind flashed back to the preseason scrimmage between these two teams (I’m talking about the brawl not the actual “game” as unfortunately I wasn’t there) and was amazed that there was no fight nor any penalties called during these scrums. I’m not sure who gets credit for keeping the players in line but it definitely wasn’t the refs.

In the end it was a much needed victory for the Bandits in front of their home crowd. Not a pretty one but win nonetheless. Toronto suffered their first loss of the season but still remain atop the East division standings. The Bandits sit tied for second with their New York rival Knighthawks. Toronto hosts the Bandits next Saturday for their second of three meetings.