Good teams often find ways to win when they play poorly.

Case in point: the Buffalo Bandits, who are now on top of the National Lacrosse League standings. The Bandits played perhaps their sloppiest game of the season Saturday night but found a way to beat the New York Saints, 19-18, before a season-high crowd of 9,817 at Marine Midland Arena.

John Tavares' score - 56 seconds into overtime - allowed the Bandits to prevail despite poor passing, too many penalties and long stretches of uninspired play.

"Despite our fundamental bumbling and ineptness we came through and still won," Bandits coach Ted Sawicki said. "That shows a lot of character so I have to look at it in a positive way. We threw the ball away too much, we got beat to loose balls. We were poor offensively and defensively. But the ultimate goal is to get two points, so mission accomplished."

Even the winning goal came in unconventional fashion.

Tavares took the ball down the right side of the field, was forced behind the New York goal, then circled back in front of the net. He got off a bouncing shot that beat Saints goaltender Sal LoCascio to his left.

"I just improvised. I was holding the ball way too long," said Tavares, who had two goals and four assists. "I made the mistake of taking one hand off my stick so I couldn't pass. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose the ball if I couldn't pass it.

"I went around my weak side, realized there was a screen and just fired it at the net. I saw congestion in the middle so I just shot through it. I saw it hit the top corner off a bounce shot. When in doubt, you always bounce the ball toward the goal. To be honest, it was quite lucky it went in."

After the game, Sawicki teased his All-Pro forward about holding the ball too long.

"He's a guy who can get away with a play like that so I'm sure not going to give him heck about it," Sawicki said. "He fired a nice shot when it counted and got us a win."

Said Bandits captain Mike Accursi, who was named the player of the game after scoring four goals with one assist: "You give him the ball and let him do his thing."

"You want your best player to have the ball in overtime," said Buffalo's Derek Malawsky, who had two goals and four assists.

"He's (Tavares) such an opportunist," said Saints coach Scott Huff. "He was running away from the goal, brought his stick across his body and still managed to throw it in. Sal said, "if I see that shot 10 times I'll probably save it nine.' "

The Bandits, who have won three straight games and are now 5-2, were lucky to get to that point.

New York (3-6) scored on seven of 10 power-play opportunities, won 21 of 33 faceoffs, rallied from a three-goal fourth-quarter deficit and had two good chances to win it.

The Saints, who got four goals from Roy Colsey and Steve Sombrotto, tied it with 25.1 seconds left in regulation on Sombrotto's score. New York was awarded the ball after a violation on the ensuing faceoff, and Sombrotto got off a hard shot that Bandits goalie Matt Disher stopped with 5.7 seconds left.

New York also had the first possession in overtime and Disher, who made 44 saves, stopped Matt Panetta's shot, then got the ball to Travis Kilgour after nearly knocking Panetta's shot into his own net.

Chris Driscoll had six assists for the Bandits and also knocked Saints starting goalie Gord Nash out of the game in the first quarter with a shot to the facemask. Nash experienced blurred vision in his left eye. LoCascio was superb with 34 saves.

The Bandits, who play four of their last five on the road, are at Rochester next Saturday.

BOX SUMMARY
                                  1  2  3  4 OT     TOT
New York Saints (3-6)             6  3  4  5  0  --  18
Buffalo Bandits (5-2)             7  5  3  3  1  --  19

NEW YORK SAINTS               BUFFALO BANDITS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Sombrotto      4 - 3     7    D Malawsky     2 - 4     6
D Lowe         2 - 3     5    Tavares        2 - 4     6
Panetta        2 - 3     5    Driscoll       0 - 6     6
Colsey         4 - 0     4    Accursi        4 - 1     5
Benedict       1 - 3     4    Sweet          2 - 2     4
Frye           1 - 3     4    Williams       3 - 0     3
Wulder         0 - 4     4    R Kilgour      1 - 2     3
Miller         2 - 0     2    Maddalena      1 - 2     3
Naglieri       2 - 0     2    Prat           2 - 0     2
Hess           0 - 2     2    Disher         0 - 2     2
Huff           0 - 1     1    T Kilgour      0 - 2     2
Keenan         0 - 1     1    Ogilvie        0 - 2     2 
Langdon        0 - 1     1    Catton         1 - 0     1
K Lowe         0 - 1     1    Lopez          1 - 0     1

Shots on goal           63    Shots on goal           59
Saves made by           40    Saves made by           45
   LoCascio          34          Disher            45
   Nash               6
Penalties                9    Penalties               11
Penalty Minutes         21    Penalty Minutes         22
Power Play Chances      10    Power Play Chances       9
Power Play Goals         7    Power Play Goals         5
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        1
Faceoffs Won            21    Faceoffs Won            12
Loose Balls            107    Loose Balls            121

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH NLL ***

Thanks to Bandit for providing the official game stats.