Josh Byrne's winning goal in overtime sends Bandits to NLL semifinals (2024)

Josh Byrne went to the center of the floor and darted a shot to the back of the net with 10:59 left in overtime Saturday night, leading the Buffalo Bandits to a 10-9 victory over the Georgia Swarm in a National Lacrosse League single-elimination quarterfinal game.

It was Byrne’s game-high fifth goal, and his constant scoring made KeyBank Center feel like a Jay-Z concert as his goal song, the rap star’s “Public Service Announcement,” blared out of the arena’s sound system.

It felt like a PSA to the NLL as Buffalo, the No. 4 seed, squeaked out the win over No. 5 Georgia to advance to the semifinals against No. 1 Toronto in a best-of-three series, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday at FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. Buffalo will host the second game at 5 p.m. May 5. Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 11 at Toronto.

Byrne’s heroics keep alive Buffalo’s goal of repeating as NLL champion.

“It’s an unreal game, with tons of highs and lows, and we just had to stay composed and keep fighting,” the Bandits forward said.

Chris Cloutier caused a turnover, leading the Bandits to recover, and Byrne converted the walk-off winner. The entire arena celebrated a victory for the second time in about five minutes. But the first one didn’t count. With 6.0 seconds remaining in regulation, Buffalo’s Dhane Smith appeared to score the winner, but his goal was overturned by referees because his shot was a fraction of a second late crossing the goal line as time expired.

“Cloutier had a huge caused turnover and then set a massive pick,” Byrne said. “He does all of the work. I just get to shoot around. I’m thankful for Cloutier because I don’t think he gets enough credit. … I think this is why this is the best sport there is. I don’t know if there’s any other sport with that type of action. From potential go-ahead goal of Dhane making it and us thinking the game was over.”

To go from celebrating Smith’s goal to it being overturned and forcing overtime could have been detrimental to the Bandits, but it wasn’t. As the reigning league champions, they showed the resolve to adjust on the fly and make sure their next goal couldn’t be disputed.

“I thought our defense was solid,” Bandits coach John Tavares said. “Our defense won us that game. ... You look down the schedule and the scores of the games, the majority of the games are a one- or two-goal spread. Earlier in the year, we were finding ways to lose these games and now we’re finding ways to win. Whether that’s a big save, big goal or big strip and that’s the difference with us paying more attention to detail.”

A key to Buffalo’s win was its power-play execution, as it scored four goals on three power-play opportunities. Coming out of halftime with the game tied at 5-5, Georgia’s Jeff Henrick was called for cross-checking. Then Bryan Cole picked up a five-minute penalty for boarding. The Bandits took advantage. Byrne scored his fourth goal of the game off an assist from Tehoka Nantico*ke while Henrick sat. Then with Cole off the floor, Nantico*ke scored with assists from Smith and Kyle Buchanan, and Cloutier scored on assists by Smith and Byrne to give the Bandits an 8-5 lead.

Georgia, however, began to claw back. Andrew Kew scored to trim the lead to 8-6 after three quarters.

“It definitely felt like a swing and that we were going to get on a run there,” Byrne said. “They go on a swing, and we were on our heels for a little bit.”

The Swarm scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter to take a 9-8 lead with 6:34 remaining, but Buchanan scored 39 seconds later to tie it.

Byrne (five goals, one assist) and Smith (six assists) each finished with six points. Nantico*ke had one goal and two assists.

Georgia was led by Kew’s three goals and two assists and Lyle Thompson’s two goals and three assists.

Bandits goalie Matt Vinc made 46 saves to pick up the win. Georgia’s Brett Dobson, who played for St. Bonaventure, stopped 49 shots.