TORONTO - John Tavares bounced a shot through Bob Watson's legs for his third goal of the game 25 seconds into overtime to give the Buffalo Bandits an 11-10 National Lacrosse League victory over the Toronto Rock on Friday night.
Darris Kilgour's 94th regular-season coaching victory gave him the NLL career record ahead of the late Les Bartley.
Also scoring for Buffalo (4-6) were Kevin Dostie with three, Mark Steenhuis and Tom Montour with two each and Mike Accursi with one.
Bandits goalie Mike Thompson was outstanding as Toronto outshot Buffalo 62-42.
Toronto (6-5) dropped its fourth in a row. Kasey Beirnes scored three goals, Garrett Billings two and Colin Doyle, Blaine Manning, Stephane Leblanc, Mike Hominuck and Josh Wasson one each.
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.
Toronto scored first and after Buffalo's Steve Priolo fought Drew Petkoff the Bandits took control to lead 4-1 after one quarter. When it became 5-1, starting Rock goalie Steve Dietrich was replaced by Watson. Buffalo had a 15-14 shots edge at the time. The Rock responded with goals by Leblanc, Hominuck, Manning and Beirnes in a five-minute blitz on Thompson that tied it 5-5.
Steenhuis and Montour beat Watson before Beirnes put in a rebound with five seconds left in the second quarter, leaving the Bandits up 7-6 at halftime.
Doyle tied it 7-7 when he shed two checks before bouncing one in from the edge of the crease a minute into the third quarter, and then Tavares took over. Pro lacrosse's all-time leading scorer connected twice in less than two minutes with dekes from close range to give the Bandits a 9-7 lead.
The Rock finally got another ball behind Thompson when Billings, underutilized to this point, dove into the crease to score on a power play with 17 seconds remaining in the third.
Wasson tied it 9-9 when he dove into the crease and bounced one in at 4:12 of the fourth quarter.
Notes: Both teams were 2-for-3 on power plays ... Toronto scratches: Kim Squire, Scott Campbell, Anthony Lackey, Brendon Doran and Creighton Reid ... Buffalo scratches: Chris Corbeil, Sean Greenhalgh, Roger Vyse, Darryl Gibson and No. 1 goalie Ken Montour ... 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.
