The Buffalo Bandits closed out the East Division Finals this past weekend to advance to the NLL Finals, but since the Western series between the San Diego Seals and Colorado Mammoth will be going to a decisive third game this weekend, we have some time to kill.

In 30 seasons, the Bandits have now reached the championship game(s) 11 times. Let’s review them all and sprinkle in some other quick notes about the seasons in between where we have the information available. Yes, it’s going to be a long journey. Would you rather they not have made the finals in about a third of their seasons?

1992: Bandits over Wings – The Bandits played their inaugural season in 1992, and it didn’t start too great, as they lost their first three games. After a quick coaching swap with Les Bartley moving behind the bench and Buff McCready moving down the bench to an assistant role, they won their final 5 games to become the 2 seed in their National Division. After a 22-16 victory over the original version of the Boston Blazers, the Bandits traveled to Detroit to face the one-seeded Turbos who featured both Gait brothers, but they still got the job done with a 19-16 win. They faced the Philadelphia Wings in the championship who had gotten through the Baltimore Thunder and New York Saints to make it to this final game, which was played at The Spectrum. The Wings had won championships in both 1989 and 1990, so they were accustomed to this stage. The game was as close as it possibly could have been, as the teams were tied at 10 heading into overtime. Then John Tavares went behind the back (in overtime of a championship game, mind you) to beat Dallas Eliuk and the Bandits had their first championship in their first season.

1993: Bandits over Wings – The 1993 Bandits stormed through the NLL and won all 8 games and averaged a league-high 17.88 goals per game, a full two goals more on average than the next two highest offenses – the Thunder and Wings. The 1-seed in their division meant the Bandits would have a bye into the division finals, where they were met by the Blazers who had just defeated the Turbos 18-5. The Bandits defeated the Blazers 12-10 and lined up to face the Wings in a second straight championship game after the Wings defeated the Saints 17-9 in their lone playoff game after getting their division first-round bye. They also now had the aforementioned Gait brothers. It was another close game, but once again, the Bandits came out on top, winning 13-12 after Darris Kilgour scored to break the 12-12 tie in the final minute of the fourth quarter. The Bandits now had two championships in two seasons – pretty good!

1994: Wings over Bandits – In 1994. the Bandits won their first four games to extend their win streak over three seasons to 22 straight games. The Blazers ended that run in the fifth game of that season, but it was not too much of an obstacle to overcome, the Bandits still won their division with a 6-2 record, as did the Philadelphia Wings. In the playoffs, the Bandits beat the Turbos 16-10 and the Wings beat the 2-6 Saints 17-7. Could the Bandits win a third straight championship over the Wings? No. And there wasn’t much competition either, as the final score was a staggering 26-15 beat down. The Wings rode that into a 7-1 1995 season while the Bandits dropped down to 3-5 and lost to the Wings in the first round of that year’s playoffs. The Wings won that championship in a 15-14 overtime game against the expansion Rochester Knighthawks, who finished 4-4.

1996: Bandits over Wings – The Bandits bounced back in 1996 to finish 8-2 and won a tiebreaker over, you guessed it, the Philadelphia Wings to earn the 1-seed in the league. The Bandits advanced to the finals after defeating the Knighthawks 18-10, while the Wings beat the Blazers 10-8 in their semifinal matchup. If you watch this game’s pregame open, you’ll see a nice timeline of everything I wrote above. While not as much of either a blowout or nail-biter, the Bandits controlled the game and finished off the Wings with a 15-10 victory to close out The Aud. 3 championships in 5 years on 4 appearances for the Bandits.

1997: Knighthawks over Bandits – The Bandits finished 6-4 in their first season at Marine Midland Arena. Despite losing the tiebreaker in the standings to the New York Saints, Buffalo prevailed in their semifinal playoff matchup between the two teams 19-10, setting up another championship matchup with the 7-3 Philadelphia Wings…or would it? (Okay okay you read the bold) The 4-seeded Knighthawks pulled off a 15-13 upset of the Wings in the semifinals to set up a Marine Midland Arena hosted championship game, which the Knighthawks won 15-12. This would be the end of the Bandits’ first dynasty as the Wings and Toronto Rock would go on a run of championship exchanges over the next half-decade.

*Lunch break* In 1998, the Major Indoor Lacrosse League rebranded as the National Lacrosse League and took on a franchise model. The Knighthawks, Bandits, and expansion Ontario Raiders each finished 6-6 and finished third through fifth in that order of the standings. The Knighthawks faced the Baltimore Thunder in a 2v3 matchup, while the Bandits traveled to Philadelphia and lost 17-12. The 1999 Bandits dropped off and a 4-8 record meant that for the first time in their existence, they had missed the postseason. In 2000, the Bandits bounced back into the playoffs, but home floor advantage over the also 8-4 Rochester Knighthawks was not enough as a 15-11 final score kept the Bandits out of the championship once again. With the league up to 9 teams in 2001, an 8-6 record for the Bandits was not enough to make the playoffs, with the Washington Power’s 9-5 record being the mark to clinch the 4 seed. 4 more teams were added in 2002, splitting the NLL into three divisions, and in the North, an 8-8 record was once again not enough for the Bandits to make the 6-team postseason.

2004: Roughnecks over Bandits: The 2003 Bandits bounced back to a 12-4 record, tied with the Rochester Knighthawks for the best record in the NLL, but since they shared the same division, Buffalo was a 3-seed after losing the tiebreaker. After beating the Calgary Roughnecks 16-9 in the quarterfinals, the Knighthawks finished the Bandits’ season in a 16-13 game. The 8-8 2004 Bandits avenged the 2003 team by beating the Knighthawks 13-9 on the road in the first round before advancing to the championship after a 19-10 beat down of the Toronto Rock, moving on to face a Calgary Roughnecks team that had also finished as the 3 seed in their division but with a 10-6 record. They had defeated the San Jose Stealth and Colorado Mammoth to reach this game. The Bandits had started strong with a 4-1 first quarter before Calgary won the second quarter 6-1. Calgary added 7 goals in the second half to the Bandits’ 6 to finish out with a 14-11 victory and the franchise’s first championship.

And with that, we’ve reached the Data Era (Game-by-Game data goes back to 2005 on Pointstreak)

2006: Mammoth over Bandits – Just like between 2003 and 2004, the Bandits lost to the Knighthawks in the first round of the playoffs in 2005 by a 17-16 final before having a more successful season in 2006 and then beating the Knighthawks in the playoffs. The 11-5 Bandits were the top seed in the East, but it wasn’t the smoothest sailing back to the finals, as the Minnesota Swarm gave them a fourth-quarter scare in the first round. The Bandits led as much as 10-5 in the third quarter before the Swarm scored 5 straight to tie the game at 10 before a Mark Steenhuis goal with 3:09 remaining put the Bandits back on top to advance to the next round. In the semifinals against the Knighthawks, the Bandits led wire to wire to advance to the finals. Their Western opponent in the Champions’ Cup was the Colorado Mammoth, who advanced with an 18-17 overtime win over the Calgary Roughnecks and then a 13-12 win over the Arizona Sting. After a scoreless first 9 minutes, this one was all Mammoth the whole way. With the score 2-1 for Colorado early in the second quarter, Billy Dee Smith took a 5-minute illegal cross-checking penalty which led to two powerplay goals for the Mammoth from (Current Knighthawks GM) Dan Carey and Gavin Prout. 10 seconds after the second of those two powerplay goals, Josh Sims scored a goal of his own to make it 5-1 on the way to a 7-2 halftime lead and then a 16-9 final score for the franchise’s first championship.

2008: Bandits over LumberJax – Once more, the Knighthawks eliminated the Bandits in the playoffs in 2007 (On the way to their own championship that season) and the Bandits went on to the finals the following season. This season saw all four Eastern playoff teams finish 10-6, finishing in the following order: Buffalo, Minnesota, New York, and Philadelphia. The Bandits won 14-12 against the Philadelphia Wings in a back and forth first game of their playoff run and then won a 19-12 wild affair over a young Matt Vinc and the New York Titans in the semifinals. The Portland LumberJax (The epitome of the reebok era NLL team branding) snuck into the playoffs as a 6-10 4-seed and upset the 1-seed San Jose Stealth 18-16. They then beat the Calgary Roughnecks 16-12 to advance to the finals. In both games, they made fourth-quarter comebacks. The two teams went back and forth with a series of two-goal runs for most of the game, but the Bandits, led by a 5-goal 1 assist performance from Mark Steenhuis, never trailed and with a score of 14-13, won their 4th championship.

*Dinner Break* In the team’s longest gap between championship appearances, there were mixed results from season to season. In 2009, there was another multi-team tie at the top of the East, with the Titans at the top of the division and the Bandits and Blazers right behind. Buffalo beat Boston 11-8 in round 1 and then faced the Titans, who beat the Knighthawks 11-10 in overtime in the semis on a game-ending Casey Powell natural hat trick to turn the game from 10-8 Knighthawks with 4:06 left to a Titan victory. The Bandits had the league’s most prolific offense in 2009 with 13.94 goals per game, but in the semifinals, the one year older Matt Vinc had the best game of his career, stopping 41 of 44 shots in a 9-3 victory.

The 2010 Bandits were an 8-8 3-seed who won a tiebreaker over the Blazers to avoid the 11-5 now Orlando Titans, but they could not get past the Toronto Rock in a 13-11 round 1 loss, surrendering 8 of the final 10 goals of the game.

Things remained repetitive in 2011, where the Bandits found themselves atop the East, edging out Toronto and Rochester. They were able to hold off a 4th quarter Blazers run in their final game as a franchise. After the Bandits went up 10-6 in the final 5 minutes, Boston scored 4 straight, including 3 with the net empty, to tie the game with 1:47 to go before John Tavares scored the game-winner with 40 seconds left. However, a week later, the eventual champion Rock came out with a 4-0 first quarter and held off multiple Bandits runs to win 12-11.

With the Blazers gone in 2012, the East was down to 4 teams, so they all made the playoffs, and considering 3 of the 4 teams finished 7-9, it’s a good thing they did. Rochester won the tiebreaker and Philadelphia finished in the middle to be the third seed, leaving the Bandits in fourth to once again face the Toronto Rock and once again lose. After the Bandits led 6-2 at the half, Nick Rose pitched a second-half shutout, allowing the Rock to take a 7-6 lead with 1:35 left, and after John Tavares’s game-tying goal was waved off due to Tracey Kelusky being in the crease as the ball went in the net.

The 2013 Bandits got new uniforms and were as online as the rest of us were that year, but they finished 6-10, good for last in the league. Because of their trade for Anthony Cosmo the year before in which they gave up their 2013 and 2014 first-round picks, they didn’t even get to pick first overall. That honor went to the Minnesota Swarm who were able to select Logan Schuss and Jason Noble back to back. This trade has quite the What If the trail to it, as if the Bandits kept their pick and found a stop-gap goalie for the 2013 season and still selected first overall, there’s a very good chance that they would have considered drafting Dillon Ward, who ended up going third overall. If Dillon Ward is their franchise goalie, does Matt Vinc stay in Rochester in 2018-19 and then join the expansion Knighthawks in 2019-20? Do the Bandits drop off after Anthony Cosmo’s retirement and before signing Vinc? Much to think about. Oh, and there was quite the brawl this season, so here’s that as well.

In 2014, the Bandits once again finished below .500, but their 8-10 record was good for third in the division. And, once again, they were set up to face the Toronto Rock in the first round of the playoffs. However this time, the Bandits got the job done, as a 7-goal 3 assist effort from Ryan Benesch led the team to a 15-13 win. This set up the first Bandits-Knighthawks playoff matchup since that 2007 OT thriller. The Bandits won game 1 12-8 and the Knighthawks won game 2 13-8. So game 3 to settle it right? Not in 2014! After the conclusion of game 2, the two teams played a 10-minute minigame to settle the series. And that went to its overtime after the teams were tied at 1 after those 10 minutes. In the end, Cory Vitarelli’s overtime winner sent the Knighthawks to their third straight finals, where they’d complete the only professional lacrosse 3-peat to date (And also had to play another minigame).

The 2015 Bandits returned to the above .500 club finishing 11-7, but that was only good for third in the division, and they were eliminated in a much less chaotic fashion in a 14-11 first round loss courtesy of the Rochester Knighthawks. It was also the final season of John Tavares’s illustrious career.

2016: Rush over Bandits – I had already alluded to what helped the 2016 Bandits find themselves atop the East Division at 13-5, but now we can follow through their journey. Ironically, the Bandits return to the top of the East lined up with both Rochester and Toronto missing the playoffs with fewer combined wins (12) than the Bandits had. Nowadays, the 1-seed was rewarded with a bye into the Division semifinals instead of a matchup with the 4-seed, so the Bandits got to rest and watch the New England Black Wolves win 14-13 on a Shawn Evans overtime winner over the Georgia Swarm. In Game 1 of the East Final, a rare Monday matchup, the Black Wolves scored the first three goals of the game, but then the Bandits scored 11 of the next 13 goals on their way to a 15-10 victory. They also didn’t have to worry about a minigame, as they won Game 2 20-15 to advance to the finals. Their opponent in the finals, the Saskatchewan Rush, had a similar road to the championship, finishing 13-5 atop their division and advancing through the West without much pushback in either Game 1 or Game 2. They were the defending champions coming in after winning in their final season in Edmonton, so they had the experience coming in with a developing core.

In Game 1, an early Rush lead was erased by a run of 7 of 8 goals in the second quarter putting the Bandits up two before two Rush goals tied the game at 6 at the half. The two teams exchanged the next 4 goals across the third quarter, but after Ryan Benesch scored 4:18 into the fourth quarter, the Rush scored three straight goals and secured an 11-9 victory.

Game 2 in Saskatoon was another back-and-forth game, once again tied at the half. Tied at 7 in the third quarter, Dhane Smith took a penalty which rewarded the Rush with a penalty shot. Zack Greer was stopped by Anthony Cosmo to keep the score deadlocked, and then Mark Steenhuis and Dhane Smith scored two straight goals to give the Bandits a 9-7 lead after 3. The Rush countered with the next three goals, including two in 64 seconds. Kevin Brownell scored 11 seconds after the 10th Rush goal to tie the game back up. With 32 seconds left, the Bandits had the opportunity for the final shot. Ryan Benesch shot wide with around 20 seconds left with Jeff Cornwall getting the rebound and breaking the tie on a breakaway, and that was all she wrote; the Rush had their second straight championship as part of three rings in four straight appearances.

2019: Roughnecks over Bandits – The 2017 Bandits dropped off and missed the playoffs at 6-12 as their defense dropped off substantially, allowing 13.94 goals per game after 11.89 per game in 2016. Anthony Cosmo retired at the end of the 2017 season, and the defense once again found itself towards the bottom of the league in goals allowed in 2018 with 13.33 per game. However, the 2017 falloff is what led the team to be able to draft Josh Byrne first overall in the 2017 draft. The 8-9 Bandits faced the 9-8 Knighthawks in the final weekend of 2018 with both teams needing a win to be the third playoff team alongside the eventual 11-7 Swarm and 9-9 Black Wolves. In front of a sellout crowd at KeyBank Center, the most recent time that the arena has sold out for lacrosse, the Knighthawks walked away with a 15-13 win. As I have discussed before, the 2018-19 offseason, particularly the UFA signing of Matt Vinc, propelled the Bandits to a league-best 14-4 record with an improved defense that only gave up 10.33 goals per game with a league-best offense. The Bandits handled the New England Black Wolves in the first round and then the Toronto Rock in the East Final to advance to the NLL Finals. Calgary’s road to the finals was a tad more contested. They lost the tiebreaker to the expansion San Diego Seals at 10-8, forcing them to travel to Pechanga Arena for their first-round 2v3 matchup. They left San Diego with a 12-11 win and then came back home to beat the 6-12 Colorado Mammoth, who upset the Saskatchewan Rush in the first round, 8-4 in the West Final.

Christian Del Bianco’s 47 saves on 51 shots faced in the West Final was not a one-off, it was part of a heater; his third straight game allowing less than 10 goals going back to April 20 during the regular season. Being matched up against not only Matt Vinc but also the prolific Bandits offense was going to be a heavy ask for the 21-year-old phenom to start Game 1 of the NLL Finals in a raucous Banditland, but they don’t give the nickname The Phenom to just any goalie. Both goalies were on their games right out from the start in Game 1, with each team being held to 2 goals in the first half. Shawn Evans got the scoring underway in the 3rd quarter, but the Roughnecks responded less than a minute later with a transition goal from Dan MacRae. Calgary wasn’t done either, as they scored the next 3 goals as well to bust their lead open to 6-3 in the first minute of the 4th quarter. Corey Small scored a minute later, but that was the only break from a stretch in which the Roughnecks would score another 3 goals to go up 9-4 with about 10 minutes to play. Josh Byrne picked up the next two goals and Chase Fraser added a third to make it 9-7, but it was too late. At the end of things, Del Bianco had 48 saves on 55 shots faced and the Roughnecks were game 1 winners by a 10-7 final score.

Writing this on May 26th, it’s officially been 3 whole years since Game 2 of the 2019 NLL Finals. An entire pandemic stands between that date and this current moment, so that might make the memory of that game a little foggy even for those who watched, but it was an instant classic. From the start, it was not going to be a goalie duel, as the two teams combined for 7 goals in the first quarter, and the Bandits led 4-3, including 3 goals in 96 seconds. Shawn Evans made it a 5-3 game 1:49 into the second quarter, but then it was time for Calgary to make their run, scoring the next 4 to go up 8-5. Chase Fraser scored a powerplay goal with 8 seconds left in the half, but Dane Dobbie scored one of his 4 goals with 1 second left to make the score 9-6 going into the break. The Bandits were able to remove the deficit with a 4-1 third quarter, setting up a sensational final [regulation] stanza. In a 1:06-long blink of an eye, Calgary got two more goals before Jordan Durston completed a hat trick and Dhane Smith got his first and only goal of the game to go along with 6 assists, and it was all tied up again. Dobbie got another last-minute goal with 55 seconds to go off a Del Bianco rainbow outlet pass during which he barely was able to stay out of the crease. Buffalo won the ensuing faceoff and got the timeout. With the net empty, Corey Small was able to tie the game with 27 to play. The Roughnecks got their ensuing faceoff and timeout, and because of Dane Dobbie’s buzzer-beater attempt to hit the goal post, the game headed to overtime.

*Water break*

The Bandits won the opening faceoff and for that stretch of fewer than 30 seconds, the shootout had come to a halt and Christian Del Bianco continued his run of, well, phenomenal play. Corey Small’s shot was stopped but the rebound trickled out from between Del Bianco’s legs where Dhane Smith was able to scoop up a rebound on the crease that was either blocked in the crease by Zach Currier or hit the crossbar (YouTube doesn’t have enough slow-mo to break it down further). Shawn Evans got that rebound and Del Bianco made a splitting save that Calgary rebounded and called timeout before going the other way. Jesse King rebounded a Curtis Dickson miss on the initial Roughneck shot attempt of the possession and flipped the ball to Riley Loewen, who set up Rhys Duch who sent a mid-range shot past Matt Vinc to give Calgary the championship – 13-12 the final.

It kind of stinks to end this post on such a bummer with two heartbreaking championship series losses, but if the Bandits do win the whole thing, it’ll encompass the joy that this fairly still put together group will be feeling to have finally secured a championship. But for you the reader, Congratulations! You’ve made it to the present day, and the Bandits are still going to be hosting Game 1 of the NLL Finals on June 4. We’ll be looking into that one when we know who they’ll be facing after Saturday Night.

Photo Credit: Bill Wippert