The Buffalo Bandits envisioned nights like Saturday when they used their first two draft picks last September to select Josh Byrne and Chase Fraser.

Byrne, the No. 1 pick, scored four goals and Fraser, the 13th pick, scored three in a 14-11 home win over New England on Saturday.

Both grew up playing box lacrosse in British Columbia and excelled in field lacrosse on the East Coast — Byrne at Hofstra on Long Island and Fraser at Neumann University of Philadelphia.

Byrne has appeared in all 15 Buffalo games and has 24 goals — most by any first-year player — in a season worthy of the Rookie of the Year award.

Fraser has needed to be patient. He was on injured reserve for a stretch and a healthy scratch for four games before getting back into the lineup against the Black Wolves because a roster spot opened up after Craig England underwent eye surgery. Fraser, who was Rookie of the Year with his home-province Nanaimo Timbermen in the West Coast indoor league last summer, came through to increase his output to eight goals in seven games. He was presented with the championship belt that goes to the game’s team MVP.

“I’m happy he got his chance to get back in,” Byrne, 23, said of his 22-year-old teammate. “He’s probably the most athletic kid I’ve seen in my life.”

The home crowd of 13,709 couldn’t get enough of their team’s West Coast wonders. The goaltending wasn’t bad either. Buffalo’s Alex Buque and New England’s Aaron Bold each made 54 saves.

Buffalo and Rochester now are tied for first place in the NLL East with 8-7 records, which leaves fans of both teams eagerly anticipating a rematch in Buffalo on the schedule’s closing night, April 28. Rochester will take a 2-1 edge in the season series into that game.

Thrilling Finish

Rochester overcame a 9-4 deficit before earning a share of first place in its division with a late spurt for a 16-14 home win over Colorado on Saturday.

It was 14-14 with two minutes left. Cody Jamieson scored with 1:47 remaining and Austin Shanks connected with 1:18 left, and that’s all she wrote.

.@MammothLax visited @RocKnighthawks looking for a W to gain some ground on the fight for 1st in the West pic.twitter.com/EoKnxQYr7Q

— NLL (@NLL) April 2, 2018

The oddity in this game was the benching of both Dillon Ward and Matt Vinc in the second quarter. Steve Fryer finished up for the Mammoth and Angus Goodleaf took over in the Knighthawks’ nets in front of an announced crowd of 6,228.

“The thing is, you don’t want Dillon Ward to get hot, and we got to him early,” Knighthawks coach Mike Hasen said.

Joe Resetarits and Mark Vitarelli scored three goals each for Rochester.

“We just kept battling,” Resetarits said. “This game is so quick. We know in this league when you’re down by five goals it’s nothing. We know what it takes to win.”

Keogh on Fire

Stephen Keogh returned to Blue Cross Arena for the first time since being traded to Colorado and scored seven goals. He put on quite a show but the loss to his previous team ruined any chance to boast.

“He was on fire,” coach Pat Coyle said. “He was dialed in. We had Adam Jones do [seven] a few times, had John Grant Jr. do it a few times, seen [Colin] Doyle do it a few times. He’s in pretty good company.”

The over-hand assassin.

All of Keogh's goals!#TuskUp pic.twitter.com/uQAs27Z0K5

— Colorado Mammoth (@MammothLax) April 1, 2018

Scoring Machine

New England is last in the NLL East but that doesn’t take away from the sensational season being had by Kevin Crowley.

The 29-year-old native of New Westminster, British Columbia, scored five goals in his team’s 14-11 loss in Buffalo. It was the 10th time in his 14 games that he scored at least three goals. He leads the league with 41 goals as he nears his 2017 career high of 45. The 6-foot-4 graduate of Stony Brook has scored at least one goal in his last 33 games.

Calgary In, Vancouver Out

Calgary clinched the third and final playoff berth in the NLL West with a 13-9 road win over Vancouver. It was the seventh home game and seventh home loss for the Stealth, who were mathematically eliminated from contention for a playoff berth. That tends to happen to teams that go 2-13. Announced attendance was 3,363, which was slightly below the league-low average of 3,484.

“We battled hard and we are coming together as a team but we came up short again,” said goaltender Eric Penney, who made a valiant effort with 56 saves. “We are a tight-knit family and although this is not the circumstance we want to be in we are still battling. The next three games are huge. We need to battle because a lot of us are going to be playing for our jobs next year. Hopefully we can play spoiler to a couple of teams. We are just going to look at every game as a championship game.”

It was 8-8 in the third quarter when Calgary pulled ahead. Any chance of a late Vancouver rally vanished when Christian Del Bianco shut them out in the fourth. Curtis Dickson and Dan Dobbie scored three goals each for the Roughnecks.

Vancouver has won only one of nine games against division opponents.

Clinching a berth was sweet redemption for Calgary’s players.

“They put us out last year and a lot of guys remembered that,” Dobbie said.

Points Race

Buffalo’s Dhane Smith had a goal and five assists Saturday and now has a league-best (33G, 58A) 91 points in 15 games.

Saskatchewan’s Mark Matthews has (25G, 62A) 87 points in 14 games. The Rush had a weekend bye.

Rochester’s Joe Resetarits had three goals and three assists Saturday and is third with (31G, 54A) 85 in 15 games.

Colorado’s Ryan Benesch has (31G, 52A) 83 in 15 games, as does Saskatchewan’s Robert Church (38G, 45A) in 14.

Leading Goalies

Calgary’s Christian Del Bianco continues to lead all goalies with a save percentage of 80.3.

Colorado’s Dillon Ward and Toronto’s Nick Rose are next at 78.4 and Saskatchewan’s Evan Kirk is close behind at 78.1. Rochester’s Matt Vinc follows at 77.8, Buffalo’s Alex Buque is sixth at 77.4 and Georgia’s Mike Poulin is seventh at 77.0.

Breakaways

Joey Cupido of the Mammoth and Challen Rogers of the Rock have each scored 11 goals. Picking one of the two as transition player of the year is going to be a tough call. Rogers missed three games with an injury so his per-game total is highest. Nick Weiss of the Bandits has been good, too, and has nine goals off fast breaks.

For and Against

Rating teams on goals for minus goals against: 1. Saskatchewan +50, 2. Rochester +26, 3. Toronto +24, 4. Colorado +18, 5. Buffalo +6, 6. Georgia -2, 7. Calgary -4, 8. New England -53, 9. Vancouver -65.

Penalties

Buffalo’s Mitch De Snoo is the most penalized player. He’s been assessed 15 minor penalties. Calgary’s Tyson Bell and Vancouver’s Matt Beers have each been assessed 13 minors. Toronto’s Bill Hostrawser and Rochester’s Billy Dee Smith have been assessed the most majors, three each.

The team with most average penalty minutes is Toronto — 17.79 per game. Colorado has been the most disciplined — 9.53 per game.

Week 18

Only three games are scheduled.

SATURDAY

COLORADO (10-5) at SASKATCHEWAN (11-3) 9:30 p.m. ET

Saskatchewan has been No. 1 overall for months but Colorado has come on strong and will have a legitimate shot at overtaking the Rush if it can win this one. The Rush, having lost their last home game to Rochester, will be determined to avoid a second straight SaskTel Centre defeat and to lock up the NLL West title.

This will be the third and final meeting. Saskatchewan won the first two in Denver — 17-12 on Jan. 13 and 13-10 on Feb. 2 — so it owns the season series standings tiebreaker should the two teams finish with identical records.

Saskatchewan had a bye last weekend, while Colorado played twice, winning 11-7 in Toronto and losing 16-14 in Rochester. The Mammoth mindset remains the same.

“We’re hoping to finish first in the West with a one-game-at-a-time mentality,” Cupido said. “I thought [the game in Toronto] was the most complete game we’ve played defensively and Wardo stood on his head. That’s what we need to do the rest of the way. We’re a tight-knit group. Everybody knows his role and plays within it. We’re going to continue to do that with each shift. We’re a fundamentally sound group and a fun family to be a part of.”

“We’ve had the same core group for a couple of years now and we’re fine-tuning the small details now,” said defenseman Josh Sullivan.

Saskatchewan is No. 1 in both offense (14.3/game) and defense (10.86/game). Colorado is No. 6 on offense (12.07/game) and No. 2 on defense (10.87/game).

Saskatchewan has been nearly perfect, 7-1 on the road, and is 4-2 at home. Colorado has played some of its best lacrosse on the road in going 6-2.

“We want to win every game we have left,” Mammoth defenseman Robert Hope said. “Each time we come to the rink our goal, obviously, is to win and to build for the playoffs. We’re pushing for that first-place opportunity.”

SUNDAY

CALGARY (6-8) at NEW ENGLAND (6-8), 2 p.m. ET

Calgary is locked into third place in the NLL West and needs to build momentum on some wins before going to Colorado for a first-round playoff showdown, while New England is desperate for a win to keep alive its chances of making the NLL East playoffs.

This is the only meeting this year. The last time they met at the Mohegan Sun Arena, Calgary eked out a 9-8 win after leading 9-4. That was on Jan. 15, 2016. Only five current Black Wolves were in the lineup that night.

Calgary clinched a playoff berth Saturday with a 13-9 road win over Vancouver that eliminated the Stealth from contention. New England comes off a 14-11 defeat in Buffalo.

New England is No. 8 on offense (10.64/game) and No. 8 on defense (14.43/game).

New England is 3-4 at home. Calgary is 2-4 on the road and, other than a lopsided win in Toronto, has been largely unimpressive away from home.

TORONTO (7-7) at GEORGIA (7-7) 4:05 ET

It’s the Twitter game of the week and the winner will jump into a three-way tie for first place in the NLL East.

This is the third of three meetings. Georgia won the first two _ 14-13 at home Feb. 17 and 12-7 at Toronto on March 3 so owns the standings tiebreaker.

Georgia is coming off a bye week. Toronto lost 11-7 at home to Colorado last Friday.

Toronto is a good road team with a 4-2 record. Georgia is 4-3 at home.

Toronto is No. 4 on offense (13.21/game) and No. 3 on defense (11.50/game). Georgia is No. 5 on offense (12.29/game) and No. 6 on defense (12.43/game).

Georgia is 5-0 against Toronto, including a 2-0 playoff sweep last spring, since a 12-11 Toronto road win on March 24, 2017.

BYES: BUFFALO (8-7), ROCHESTER (8-7), VANCOUVER (2-13)

Time Travel

April 7, 1989: The Philadelphia Wings defeated the New York Saints 11-10 to win the championship in front of a home Spectrum crowd of 16,042. American Brad Kotz of the Wings won the league scoring title with 34 points including 28 goals that season, which saw six teams each play eight games in what was then known as the Major Indoor Lacrosse League.

April 6, 1991: The Detroit Turbos defeated the Baltimore Thunder 14-12 in front of 10,814 spectators in the Baltimore Arena. Six teams played 10-game MILL schedules that year. Gary Gait won the scoring title with 68 points. Paul Gait scored the most goals, 47.