The Buffalo Bandits secured an 11-10 overtime victory against the Saskatchewan Rush at KeyBank Center on Friday, moving their record to 5-6 and reclaiming the final playoff spot. Josh Byrne scored the game-winning goal in overtime after being held scoreless during regulation.
The team is set to play its next game against the Toronto Rock on Saturday at TD Coliseum in Hamilton, with faceoff scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on CW23 in the Buffalo market, streamed on ESPN+, and available on radio via WWKB 1520AM.
Toronto enters the matchup with a 6-4 record following a recent 13-9 win over the Colorado Mammoth, which ended Colorado’s seven-game winning streak. Challen Rogers and rookie CJ Kirst each recorded hat tricks in that contest, helping Toronto outscore Colorado by six goals in the fourth quarter.
The Rock have benefited from contributions by several rookies this season, including Kirst, Owen Hiltz, and Sam English. Toronto had each of the top three picks in the 2025 NLL Draft and selected Kirst first overall. Kirst won both the Tewaaraton Award and a national championship at Cornell before becoming NCAA Division I’s all-time leading scorer last season. He currently leads all NLL rookies with 22 goals this year. Hiltz, drafted third overall from Syracuse University, has scored 19 goals—second among league rookies.
Bandits head coach John Tavares addressed the challenges posed by facing new players: “Especially defensively, you don’t know the players’ tendencies,” Tavares said. “You can watch them all you want, but until you start facing them, you don’t realize maybe how fast somebody is, or the type of shooter they are, different angles that they have. The way they really release the ball for your goaltenders, for example. It’s always a challenge when you meet new players. You learn their tendencies, you try to shut them down, and then those players try to modify their game. It’s kind of just one big cycle that goes around.”
The Bandits will look to build momentum as they face a young Toronto squad showing strong early results from its youth movement.
