Call this one wasted opportunities. Countless shots ringing off the post. An anemic power play.

Despite outshooting the New York Titans 59-40, the Buffalo Bandits failed to capitalize on their chances, and fell to New York by a score of 11-9, before a near sellout crowd of 18,550 at HSBC Arena.

One of Buffalo’s prettiest goals happened early on. John Tavares was fighting for control of a loose ball just off to the side of the New York net while his teammates were making a player change. That change was very slow in happening, leaving Tavares to fend for himself. Getting no help, he managed to outfight four New York defenders and send the ball back to Tom Montour, who then re-fed it to right back to Tavares, then burying the ball behind goaltender Matt Vinc.

Otherwise, Vinc was absolutely fabulous in the crease tonight, especially in the first quarter, when he held Buffalo to just two goals on 19 shots, making several highlight reel saves in the process. At the other end, goalie Mikey Thompson was the last minute starter as Ken Montour was scratched due to the flu. “Matt was terrific tonight he made the difference,” said a disappointed Coach Darris Kilgour. “From our end, I thought Mikey (Thompson) let in a couple easy ones.” Kilgour added that Thompson did not know he would be playing until just half an hour before the game.

Buffalo trailed 6-3 at the half, and then brought it within two early in the 3rd on a strange looking dribbler that was credited to John Tavares. From there Buffalo went into an offensive funk for most of the 3rd quarter, until Mark Steenhuis lit the lamp twice late in the frame, one on a laser shot.

That gave Buffalo a spark heading into the 4th quarter. Billy Dee Smith tied the score at eight on a breakaway just over three minutes into the frame, but New York immediately retook the lead, and every time Buffalo made it close, the Titans answered. “Yeah it’s frustrating,” said Smith. “I was in the right spot for that breakaway, and I just knew I would bury it. That was the time for a momentum changer but we could not seal the deal.”

Buffalo earned a 4 minute power play at the 6:38 mark, thanks to Bill Greer’s check from behind on Mark Steenhuis, but the Bandits could not mount much of any pressure during that time, misfiring on most shots and not being able to find their shot lanes. Steenhuis brought it to within one with less than three minutes to go, but as was the case all night, New York immediately answered, closing out the scoring and an 11-9 win. “Our power play was horrible, we had so many opportunities to put this one away and we didn’t,” said Mike Accursi, who had a goal and two assists on the night. “We must have hit 10 or 15 posts tonight. I have to give New York credit they made the big plays when it counted.”

Buffalo did get some help on the scoreboard tonight (Gee those are words you’ll never read in a Sabres story), as Rochester defeated Boston, and Toronto also lost, and now the Bandits find themselves nursing just a one game lead on Both New York and Boston. “This is a tough division,” said Accursi. “Remember last year, you look at this division, there were four teams at 10-6, that speaks for itself. I expect nothing different this season it will be a dogfight.”

The Bandits head to Boston next Saturday to face the Blazers in a first place showdown. “This isn’t a typical expansion team, they are stacked with seasoned veterans,” said Accursi. Coach Kilgour added, “They start with (forward Dan) Dawson and finish with (goalie Anthony) Cosmo. They are about as tough a team as they come.”

John Tavares scored four points on the night, bringing him within just six points to 1400 in his amazing career.

CHEERS AND JEERS…

Cheers to HSBC Arena management, for putting the Sabres game against Montreal, still in progress, up on the video board as soon as the Bandits game ended, inviting fans to stick around and watch. The game was past the halfway mark of the 3rd period tied at 3 at the time. And that leads to…

Jeers to HSBC Arena management, for cutting the game off at the end of regulation, with the score still tied at 3, and shooing the fans out of the seating bowl. Gratefully, the game was still running on the monitors in the pavilion (sans sound), and after doing our postgame interviews we stuck around with about 500 other hardy fans to watch the game to its exciting conclusion, a six round shootout won by the Sabres.

Goalie Mike Thompson can just look on in disbelief as New York opens a 6-3 lead late in the second quarter.
-Photo credit: Mark Byrnes, WNY Media