THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Darris Kilgour is the winningest coach in pro lacrosse history.
When John Tavares bounced a shot past Bob Watson 25 seconds into overtime Friday night, he gave the Buffalo Bandits an 11-10 victory over Toronto Rock and supplied Kilgour with his 94th regular-season win, moving Kilgour past the late Les Bartley in the National Lacrosse League record book.
Kilgour downplayed his achievement.
"It’s a great honour but, at the same time, if Les had the same amount of games I did I’d still be chasing him," said Kilgour. "In my mind, championships are the main thing and I’m still six behind him in that so I’ve got a long ways to go to be mentioned in the same breath as Les Bartley.
"I’ve been blessed coaching great teams and I’ve been blessed to have coached more games in a season than he had. I’m not putting any stock in this record right now."
Kilgour’s assistant, Dewey Jacobs, called a timeout to choreograph the winning shot. The ball went to Mark Steenhuis, who wound up as if to shoot but instead dished off to Tavares. The all-time leading pro scorer instantaneously let go a shot before Watson could move across his crease and get set.
"We won so it was a satisfying goal," Tavares said as he towelled down. "That was a designed play.
"I give Mark Steenhuis a lot of credit. He drew a lot of attention to himself. He wound up and then fed me the ball. I didn’t do much but put it in the net, really."
Watson played well after taking over from starter Steve Dietrich early in the second quarter after Buffalo went up 5-1, and he wasn’t beating himself up after letting in the winning shot.
"Johnny is what Johnny is — the best player that probably ever played the game," said Watson. "He’s a smart player. You’ve got to be on your toes with him. He’s slowed down a little bit but his smarts make up for it. He’s a hell of a player."
The Bandits (4-6) have been digging themselves out of an early-season hole.
"We got a big win last week against Orlando and now this one — two teams ahead of us in the standings — and we had to have these wins if we were going to compete for a playoff spot," said Kilgour. "The boys really buckled down. Hopefully the team really builds on this."
Tavares and Kevin Dostie each scored three goals, Steenhuis and Tom Montour got two each and Mike Accursi one for the Bandits.
"We’re starting to come together," said Tavares. "You can sense in the room now that we’re building some confidence."
Bandits goalie Mike Thompson was outstanding as Toronto outshot Buffalo 62-42.
"That’s when I usually have my strongest games, when we get outshot like that," said Thompson. "It’s hard to get out of focus when they’re always coming at you like that. It’s easy to stay in the game and prepare for the next shot."
Toronto (6-5) dropped its fourth in a row and fell all the way from first place to fourth in the East. Orlando (5-3) rose to the top with an 11-9 home win over Philadelphia in the only other NLL game Friday night.
Kasey Beirnes scored three goals, Garrett Billings two and Colin Doyle, Blaine Manning, Stephane Leblanc, Mike Hominuck and Josh Wasson one each for the slumping Rock.
Dostie broke a 9-9 tie with 6:10 remaining in the fourth quarter by somehow swinging his stick to get a shot past Watson while being crushed to the floor by Sandy Chapman.
Buffalo captain Chris White was penalized for an illegal cross-check with 41 seconds remaining in regulation time. After a wild sequence, and with Watson on the bench for an extra attacker, Billings drew Thompson out of position with a fake and scored into the open net with two seconds left to tie it and force extra play.
The late heroics meant nothing after Tavares ended the game.
"The positive out of the game is that we battled," said Rock coach Troy Cordingley. "We never gave up.
"We were badly outplayed in the first quarter and then we were chasing them the rest of the game and their goalie was hot. When you expend all that energy battling back into the game … the last shot won."
The four consecutive losses have deflated Cordingley’s crew.
"We had something to prove early in the year and we’ve got to get that back," he said. "We have to have that hunger, that pride in the jersey, and the consistency it takes to win. We’re struggling a little bit. I’m not going to make excuses. We’re just not very good right now."
Attendance was not announced, as usually is the case, and was noted on the game-over stats sheet as 8,567. Nobody could remember the last time the Rock drew so few. They had 16,000-plus crowds when they were winning championships. Missing the playoffs the last two years hurt.
And now this.
. Notes : Both teams were 2-for-3 on power plays …Steve Priolo fought Drew Petkoff after Toronto scored the game’s first goal. The Bandits scored the next five … Toronto scratches: Kim Squire, Scott Campbell, Anthony Lackey, Brendon Doran and Creighton Reid … Buffalo scratches: Chris Corbeil, Sean Greenhalgh, Roger Vyse, Darryl Gibson and injured No. 1 goalie Ken Montour … With third-string goalie Angus Goodleaf unavailable, forward Brandon Francis wore Ken Montour’s sweater and equipment and filled the role of backup goalie … Toronto’s next game is March 27 at Orlando. Next home game is April 2 against Calgary.