Bandits make it three in a row

By Budd Bailey

Sometimes it helps when your best players are your best players.

Take the Buffalo Bandits, for example.

“The Dhane and Josh Show,” sometimes associated with a talk show shown on YouTube, were in Oscar-winning form on the field Friday night as the Bandits defeated the Colorado Mammoth 13-10 before a sellout crowd in the KeyBank Center.

Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne both had four goals and five assists for nine points, and were the dominant players on the field. It was their best game of the season to date.

“With the offense here, you don’t have to do too much,” newcomer Joe Resetarits said about playing with Smith and Byrne. “You’ve got the best one-two punch, in my opinion, in history, with a supporting cast. To be a part of that, you do whatever you can to help the team win.”

Coach John Tavares certainly appreciates the value of a well-balanced offense. However, he knows that having those two players lead the way puts plenty of pressure on opposing teams.

“Everybody was being a threat,” he said. “That’s what I want to see. I want to see everyone on the floor be a threat. I’ll take two from everybody, but – trust me – I’ll take four and four from my two top guys too.”

The result was quite a reversal for the Bandits. They lost to the same Mammoth team by a lopsided score of 20-9 on January 31 … and it wasn’t that close. Sometimes teams burn the videos of such games and take a vow of silence about it. That wasn’t the case for the Bandits this time, as they used the beatdown as motivation in the rematch.

“I’d like to forget it, but (Tavares) brought it up a few times,” Smith said. “You have those games once a year, and it’s a wake-up call. We’ve had a few of them. We were finding ways to lose earlier in the year, and now we’re finding ways to win. I think it’s just a team effort.”

In particular, Buffalo was conscious of getting off to a good start this time. In January, the Mammoth had a 6-0 lead four minutes into the second quarter, and the game felt over. It was important for the Bandits to set the tone right away. Smith did exactly that with two goals in the first four minutes, and added two assists in the next minute. It was 6-1 in Buffalo’s favor before the opening quarter was half-finished.

“I was kind of feeling it early in the game,” Smith said. “Then I slowed down and other guys pitched in. That’s important for a team. I told the guys we couldn’t sit back. It’s a battle.”

From there, the Bandits were in relatively good shape most of the time. Colorado made a couple of runs along the way, getting as close as a 9-8 deficit in the third quarter. But Buffalo scored the next four goals to make it a five-goal lead again with 14 minutes to go.

Historically speaking, the Bandits were 52-0 since 2014 when they had a five-goal lead in the fourth quarter, and they weren’t about it to make it 52-1 on this night.

“When it was 9-8, they came right back with two quick goals and I thought it deflated them,” Tavares said. “From there, we coasted a bit. … But we wanted to get a win, regardless of the score.”

It had been a busy week for the Bandits. They were missing Ian MacKay and Nick Weiss to injuries, which forced some shuffling in the lineup. Those are two good-sized pieces to their puzzle.

“Ian is a big part of our offensive, and he’s a hard guy to replace,” Tavares said. “It was Coltrane (Tyson’s) first game, and I thought he did a lot of good things in the middle. I liked his fourth quarter. We put (Taylor) Dooley in (for Weiss), and Dooley’s been a really good player for us. … It’s nice having depth.”

They also brought Resetarits back for a second go-around with the team. The Hamburg native was last a Bandit in 2015, when his teammates included Smith, Steve Priolo, and – yes – Tavares. His old team in Philadelphia seemed to be cleaning house in an attempt to rebuild the roster, but coming to Buffalo was a nice surprise.

“Surreal, honestly,” Resetarits said. “I always wanted to come back here and play. A lot has happened since then. I have a family. They can watch me here. They can see me play for the team I grew up watching. It means the world to me. And I have something to play for; it’s been a while. I can’t thank the people enough who brought me in.”

Tavares said, “I think he looked good. He was a little hesitant, with his first game back in his hometown. But he did a lot of good things and had some chances. Once he gets one, he’ll get more. He’s a great goal-scorer.”

The defense also deserves some praise for its play Friday. When the game was in doubt in the fourth quarter, the unit did a good job of limiting Colorado’s scoring chances. Meanwhile, Matt Vinc stopped 45 of 55 shots, an excellent save percentage of .818.

The win was the Bandits’ third straight, something they haven’t done since the start of the 2024-25 season (seven straight victories). It also moved the team to 7-6 – above the .500 mark for the first time since mid-January.

The road from here still has some bumps. Buffalo’s next assignment will be on March 21 in San Diego. The Seals will take a 6-6 record into Saturday’s game in Saskatchewan. While the thought of Southern California in mid-March is pleasing to any team that calls the Buffalo area home, Smith needs no reminder that he and the rest of the team will be on a business trip.

“It’s hard to go to nice places like that, but you’re not on vacation,” he said. “We’re adults here. We’re professional athletes, and we want to win. It’s much more enjoyable trip if we win that game. We’ll be ready for that opportunity.”

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB.)