Bandits notebook

Montour injury adds to coach’s frustration

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NEWARK, N. J.—Buffalo Bandits coach Darris Kilgour was very unhappy about losing the game and seeing an end to his team’s season Saturday night. He used his strongest language, however, about an injury to one of his players.

Goalie Ken Montour was hurt when Casey Powell of the New York Titans ran into him while crashing the net for a goal late in the third period. Montour, who felt pain in his left knee, limped off the field and had to be replaced by Mike Thompson, who played the rest of the game, a 9-3 New York win.

“He’s hurt, again, when someone dove into the crease with no call,” said Kilgour, with some harsh adjectives removed. “The league’s a joke. I’m sick of it. All season long, my goalie has been getting run. We haven’t reacted to it because the league said it would protect the goalie. They haven’t. Now Kenny is probably lost for the summer and he’s seriously hurt, because the refs won’t do their job.

“I’m sick of it. I don’t care if I get fined. I don’t care.”

Montour walked around the locker room with support on his knee. He’ll get it looked at soon for a full diagnosis.

“I couldn’t put much weight on it,” he said. “Casey went into me and I felt the impact.”

•••

The game featured a rather odd atmosphere in one sense. There might have been more fans cheering for the road team in a playoff game than for the home team.

The Bandits fans made the drive from Western New York in large numbers for the game. They waited patiently for the gates to open before the game, clad in the familiar bright orange. They filled up the side of the field where the Bandits’ bench was, and they cheered loudly whenever possible for their favorite indoor lacrosse team.

The crowd looked to be less than 2,500, and that’s with a special promotion for $5 general admission tickets, and perhaps half were members of the Bandits Brigade.

They just didn’t have anything to cheer about for much of the night. That left the Bandits very disappointed.

“It was awesome to see so many of them here tonight,” John Tavares said. “It’s disappointing that we let them down. They paid good money and spent their time to get here.”

“They were great,” Montour said about the fans. “They were the spirit of the team. The team fed off the fans all season long.”

Ed Comeau, the coach of the Titans, would like to see New York have that level of support some day.

“Our fans saw a great game last week [an overtime win over Rochester], and another one tonight. We’ve got some great fans, and we hope to grow a fan base like that some day,” he said.

•••

Comeau was happy to earn a trip to the NLL title game.

“I’ve been around in this league. I know how hard it is to get there [a championship contest], and it’s even harder to win it,” he said. “So our work is cut out for us. But we’re an excited group right now.”

Comeau, also general manager of the Titans, already has had an award-winning season in the NLL. Comeau was named the league’s General Manager of the Year earlier this week for guiding the team to a 10-6 record in 2009.

“Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make,” Comeau said. “We addressed our needs this year by drafting players like Stephen Peyser and acquiring players like Bill Greer prior to the trade deadline.”

Peyser has been effective on face-offs while Greer has fit in on defense.

•••

Matt Vinc has settled in nicely as the Titans’ goalie. In his second year as a regular, his statistics improved slightly from 2008 as he again played in all 16 regular-season games.

Comeau believes his goalie will continue to improve.

“There’s a maturation process in playing the net,” he said. “When you’re younger, you expect to get a shutout every night. When that doesn’t happen it can lead to frustration. With him, he lives in the here and now and he’s not worried about the goal that went in. He’s focused on the next shot and the next save.

“You talk to veteran goalies, they’ll tell you that it took them time to learn that as well.”

Vinc was Male Athlete of the Year as a senior at Canisius College in 2005. He had 41 saves on 44 shots in Saturday’s game.

bbailey@buffnews.com

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