Bandits face the Titans on the quiet
Small crowd makes it tougher to get excited
Published: May 09, 2009, 12:30 am
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The Buffalo Bandits aren’t expected to walk into a cauldron of noise when they play the New York Titans in the East Division final of the National Lacrosse League playoffs (7:30 tonight, Radio 1520 AM, Webcast available on nll.com).
In fact, if it weren’t for the public address system, the Prudential Center in Newark, N. J., might sound more like a library.
The location might be one of the most interesting aspects of tonight’s playoff game, as the Bandits play their first road postseason contest since a loss to Rochester in 2007. The Titans have played home games in both Madison Square Garden in New York and in Newark this season. They’ve had trouble attracting fans in both places.
“It’s not ideal to have multiple home locations,” Titans coach Ed Comeau said. “For the most part, the guys have handled it well. There are benefits to being in Madison Square Garden and benefits to being in the Prudential Center. Once the game starts, though, it’s 200 feet by 85 feet [the size of the field] that we care about.”
The Titans are coming off an 11-10 overtime playoff win over Rochester last week at Madison Square Garden. The announced attendance for the game was only 4,878. That means the atmosphere was less than supercharged.
“I’ve watched the game tape, and you can see it — there was really no energy from either team until the last 10 minutes of the game, when both teams played pretty hard,” Bandits coach Darris Kilgour said. “Until then, it was really just, ‘Let’s get through this game, wait to the end and try to turn it on.’ That’s the trap you fall into when it’s an empty field. It’s really hard to get up for that.”
It apparently took some time to figure out where tonight’s game would be played, as the Bandits first said it would be held in New York City but the league announced a day later that the game would be played in Newark. That was the site of the last Buffalo-New York game on April 11, a 12-9 Titans win before an announced crowd of 6,222.
“There’s not too much fan involvement,” Bandits forward Mark Steenhuis said. “They play loud music and things of that nature but it’s not the same. You can still talk out there. The noise doesn’t bother you as a player.
“It’s definitely a lot harder to play there. . . . You come in [to Buffalo], with so many fans cheering you on, and it’s really easy to get into the game.”
No matter where the game is played, the Titans will be a difficult test for the Bandits. New York is led by Casey Powell, who had 40 goals and 45 assists in only 13 games this season. With the Titans trailing Rochester by two goals
with five minutes left last week, Powell took over the game by scoring the game’s last three goals — including the overtime winner.
“It certainly was an exciting game, a typical NLL game when the outcome isn’t determined until the final shot,” Comeau said. “It was exciting for the fans, a little bit too exciting for the coaches.”
At the other end of the field, New York goalie Matt Vinc will try to stop a strong Buffalo offense that led the league in scoring with 223 goals. The former Canisius College standout is in the middle of the league’s pack statistically with an 11.33 goals-against average, but you wouldn’t know it by how he has played against the Bandits.
“Vinc had 59 and 50 saves against us. He’s been playing really well,” Kilgour said. “Last year we didn’t have many problems against him. Maybe we had too much confidence and were not focused on our opponent.”
The teams met in Buffalo in the East final last season, and the Bandits scored five straight goals in the fourth quarter to propel them to a 19-12 win and the championship game. Steenhuis had six goals while John Tavares had three goals and nine assists.
“That was a very spirited game,” Kilgour said. “We came out with a lot of energy. We hadn’t won a championship in a lot of years, and we were very focused going into the the postseason.”
But that was then in Buffalo, and this is now in Newark. It’s a best-of-one for the right to play for a title, and defenseman Billy Dee Smith is hoping that part of the Bandit Brigade will make the trip to New Jersey to watch what should be a very competitive contest.
“The good thing is, with our fans, we’ll be able to hear them,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how many of them show up.”
bbailey@buffnews.com
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