Bandits fall to Firewolves in overtime

The Buffalo Bandits fell 11-10 in overtime to the Albany FireWolves on Saturday night at MVP Arena.

Dhane Smith (2+4) and Josh Byrne (1+6) both notched their 100th points of the season and Matt Vinc recorded his 11,000th NLL save in a 44-save performance, including five stops in overtime.

Chase Fraser opened Saturday’s scoring after having Friday night’s game off. He rocketed off the bench, caught Byrne’s pass and put his shot past Albany goaltender Doug Jamieson to put the Bandits up 1-0 just 47 seconds into the game.

Albany forward Ty Kurtz scored 10 seconds later to even things up and added another 1:14 later to give the FireWolves a 2-1 lead.

Ian MacKay and Smith scored back-to-back goals to give Buffalo the lead again. Smith cut down toward the goal and got himself open for the pass from Byrne, the reigning NLL MVP, who tallied his third assist of the game.

Vinc and Jamieson stood tall during the latter part of the quarter to hold the score at 3-2, both making double-digit saves.

Albany scored first in the second quarter to tie the game 3-3, but Smith answered back just more than 1:30 later, stepping into a sidearm shot for his second goal of the game and his 100th point of the season.

The FireWolves answered Smith’s goal 33 seconds later, tying Saturday’s game for the fourth time.

Nick Weiss restored the Bandits’ lead as he received a pass from Ron John following a turnover, going 1-on-1 with Jamieson and putting it past him for his sixth goal of the season. The assist marked John’s first point as a Bandit.

Read more here.