Mark Steenhuis scored a season-high eight goals and added five assists to lead Buffalo past Rochester, 23-6, on Friday at HSBC Arena.
BANDITS BLOW OUT KNIGHTHAWKS, 23-6
Buffalo moves to 3-0 after routing Rochester
01/17/2009
The Buffalo Bandits defeated the Rochester Knighthawks by an astounding score of 23-6 on Friday night in front of 15,494 fans at HSBC Arena. Mark Steenhuis scored eight goals, while Roger Vyse added five goals as the Bandits improve to 3-0.The loss was Rochester's second straight as the Knighthawks were limited to a season-low six goals. The 17-goal differential is the biggest goal margin ever between Buffalo and Rochester, while the Bandits' 23 goals were also the most ever scored against the Knighthawks.
Mark Steenhius led the hometown Bandits with a game-high eight goals to go along with five assists for 13 points. Roger Vyse (5 2), Sean Greenhalgh (3 2) and former Knighthawk Mike Accursi (2 3) each had big nights to help Buffalo to its third straight win this season. Ken Montour completed the contest with 32 saves to earn Player of the Game honors.
The Knighthawks were led offensively with a four-point performance (3 1) from Shawn Evans as Derek Collins and Phil Wetherup combined for a 23-save losing effort between the pipes.
Veteran forward John Tavares opened the scoring just 1:16 into the contest to give the Bandits an early 1-0 lead. Rochester tied the game at 1-1 just over a minute later as Aaron Wilson netted his first goal in a Knighthawk uniform. Rochester would never gain the lead.
Buffalo would quickly take a 7-1 lead with goals coming from Steenhuis (2), Accursi, Greenhalgh, Vyse and Tom Montour.
Evans made it a 7-3 game with back-to-back goals within the first five minutes of the second frame. From there, Buffalo would score eight of the next nine goals of the game to extend its lead to 15-4 to start the fourth quarter.
Steve Toll cut the Bandit goal-deficit to 10 with his only goal of the contest to make the game 15-5, but Buffalo would secure the win, again scoring eight of the next nine goals to deny the Knighthawks their first win of the season.
Rochester completes the two-game road trip on Sunday, January 18th as it travels to HP Pavilion to face the San Jose Stealth. San Jose is 0-2 this season after losing 10-7 to the Minnesota Swarm on January 10th. Buffalo hits the road next weekend and takes on the Minnesota Swarm on Saturday, January 24th at 8pm ET.
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