Bandits Raise The Curtain On The 2008 Season

They were all there… the Bandettes cheerleaders, Annoying P.A. Guy, THE B-O-X guys leading the charge behind the penalty box, and a full house of 18,690 mostly Bandits fans, who needed a scoresheet to recognize all the new faces on this year’s roster. Tonight at HSBC Arena Buffalo opened the 2008 season against the defending National Lacrosse League Champion Rochester Knighthawks.

Returning fan favorites include Mark Steenhuis with his trademark orange shoes, Rich Kilgour, one of the last of the original players on the team, and the ageless John Tavares, who entered this game needing just five goals to become the all time leading goal scorer in indoor lacrosse, cementing his legacy as the best player in the game.

Gone is goaltender Steve “Chugger” Dietrich, who departed for Calgary, with last year’s backup netminder Mike Thompson taking over the starting role.

While the Bandits are a much younger and faster squad than last year’s team, they got much bad news on the injury front before the ball was even dropped for the first game. Returning forward Brett Bucktooth is out indefinitely with a hip injury, while highly touted new acquisition Sean Greenhalgh tore his ACL during practice in December, meaning he will be out for the entire season.

Darris Kilgour returns for his 6th year as Bandits head coach. Buffalo has made the playoffs in each his five seasons here, including two appearances in the NLL championship game, but have yet to win a title here. The Bandits last won a championship in 1996.

While Buffalo and Rochester played a close game from the onset, with the Bandits tying it 3-3 on a shorthanded goal by John Tavares at 5:52 of the second (he had two for the night), Rochester pulled away with six unanswered goals to take control of this game. By the time it was 9-3 Rochester, Coach Kilgour had seen enough and pulled Thompson in favor of backup Ken Montour.

With the score 9-4 Rochester, late in the 3rd quarter Buffalo’s Pat McCready and Rochester’s Sean Evans dropped the gloves and went at it, with McCready losing his jersey in Rob Ray fashion. Decision on this one to McCready. Forward Mark Steenhuis, who tallied three Bandits goals, said after the game that the fight lifted the bench. “Patty really provided us a spark at that point in the game. I don’t know what we were doing up until then.”

The 4th quarter was a back and forth affair with both teams trading goals, then the Bandits put together a three goal run late to bring it to within three, but it was too little too late and the final score ended up 12-9 Rochester.

Steenhuis said that the Buffalo/Rochester rivalry is a tense and huge one. “Once the game starts, we don’t like them and they don’t like us and it’s pretty much a war out there. But we’re all professionals and off the floor we know each other and we’re all friends too.”

Coach Darris Kilgour had his usual terse losing game face on. “We didn’t play. We didn’t finish and you see the result” said Kilgour. “I’m surprised the score was as close as it was.”

Kilgour said he’d decide tomorrow who his starting goaltender will be for the rematch at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. The team then returns home next Saturday to take on the New York Titans at HSBC Arena.