Indoor lacrosse: Buffalo scores 14-12 win and moves on to East Division championship
Buffalo Bandits survive sloppy start, defeat Philadelphia Wings 14-12
Three late goals overcome the Wings
By Tom Borrelli NEWS SPORTS REPORTER
Updated: 05/03/08 9:50 AM
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- Bandits goalie Mike Thompson makes one of his 46 saves Friday night against the Wings.
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Two bad quarters nearly led to one giant disappointment. Instead, the Buffalo Bandits relied on their survival skills to advance in the National Lacrosse League playoffs Friday night.
The top-seeded Bandits scored three straight goals in the fourth quarter and defeated the Philadelphia Wings, 14-12, before 9,344 at HSBC Arena to advance to next Saturday night’s East Division final.
“In the fourth quarter I think the boys just said, ‘You know what, this is our season,’ ” said coach Darris Kilgour, whose Bandits improved to 11-6 with a third straight win, all on home turf. “It really hit us in the face that this could be our last game if we don’t straighten it out and get to work.”
They did and their season will continue at HSBC Arena, against the winner of tonight’s division semifinal between the New York Titans and Minnesota Swarm at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
“This was a big hurdle we cleared tonight,” said goalie Mike Thompson, who made 46 saves and was at his best down the stretch. “We want the championship game in a couple of weeks. Just bring on the next man, whichever team wants it.”
The Bandits were outscored, 8-3, in the first and third quarters and out-shot, 34-21. Fourteen of their 18 turnovers came in those two periods, including nine — most of them unforced — in the first quarter alone.
“It was uncharacteristic of a team that has as many veterans with a lot of playoff experience,” said Mike Accursi, who powered the offense with four goals and three assists. “But we were squeezing our sticks a little too tight and we felt the pressure in the first quarter. It was embarrassing. But once we realized it was just a lacrosse game we were fine.”
Kevin Dostie added three goals and two assists and all seven of their scores were enormous in a nip-and-tuck affair between the NLL’s highest-scoring and most-penalized teams.
Accursi scored twice in the final quarter, his last one coming from the doorstep after he’d powered past Wings transition man Jim Borell with 6:04 remaining. That gave the Bandits the lead for good at 12-11 after they’d trailed by as much as three, twice during the first half.
Just three minutes earlier, Accursi had cranked home an overhand bullet that gave his team a short-lived 11-10 advantage.
His diving score in the second quarter was part of a five-goal run that took Buffalo from a 5-2 deficit to a 7-5 lead. And it was a thing of beauty. He left the turf just before touching the Philadelphia crease and put the ball in the back of the net, behind Rob Blasdell, before he landed.
After the Wings had tallied three straight goals to jump ahead, 4-1, Accursi came out of the penalty box and took a pass from Cory Bomberry to score a goal with 1:21 left in the first quarter that at least provided some hope after a putrid start.
“We got some timely goals from Mike Accursi again,” Kilgour said with a smile. “Surprise, surprise.”
Dostie scored the first and last in Buffalo’s six-goal second quarter, then gave the Bandits a 13-11 lead with 3:18 left in the game when he was set up in the middle off a sweet pass from NLL career scoring leader John Tavares.
“I don’t think we’ve had a good start all season so we’re used to being down,” said Dostie. “I think that’s when we battle our hardest.”
Delby Powless and defenseman Billy Dee Smith each scored twice for the Bandits and the latter used his speed on each tally. In the second quarter, Smith bolted end-to-end and outsprinted the Wings’ Thomas Hajek to give the Bandits their first lead at 6-5. Then he put the icing on Buffalo’s victory cake with an empty-netter with 45.2 seconds left, taking a pass from Pat McCready and outracing the frustrated Wings forwards.
“It wasn’t that we weren’t trying hard because we were very focused going into the game,” Smith said while receiving his first Mohawk haircut in the winning locker room after the game. “But with the home crowd maybe we were over-pumped up. The bounces didn’t go our way and we weren’t playing very smart. But we kept with it, kept working.”
League scoring leader Athan Iannucci netted four for the Wings (10-7) and Jamie Rooney and Jake Bergey each contributed hat tricks.
