Photo Credit: Robert Dungan

(4) Buffalo Bandits vs (3) Albany FireWolves

Game 1: MVP Arena, Friday May 17, 7:00 pm, WNLO, TSN, ESPN+

Game 1: KeyBank Center, Saturday May 18, 7:30 pm, WNLO, TSN, ESPN+

Game 3 (if necessary): MVP Arena, Saturday May 25, 5:00 pm, ESPN2, TSN

The Road To The Finals in the Capital

Since the NLL returned to Albany in 2022, the Bandits have an even .500 record but have lost 3 of the last four going back to the start of the 2022-23 season. Buffalo won all three matchups in 2021-22 including a 10-5 win in the first round of that year’s playoffs (a game I couldn’t write a recap for coming off a broken elbow and surgery…good times). After that, a second era of FireWolves lacrosse immediately began as the each of the top 5 scorers on the 2022 team moved onto different pastures for a myriad of reasons, but that didn’t stop the surprise 11-10 upset in Buffalo. The Bandits did finish last year’s regular season with a win in Albany and shut the door on a nightmare season for the FireWolves, who only won two more games after that season opener for a 3-15 record.

The glaring relief was going to come in the form of the return of Joe Nardella, who had torn his ACL early in the 22-23 season, at the faceoff dot and a healthy Doug Jamieson, who fought ear infections for most of last season but was coming into 2023 training camp healthy and on top of his game after backstopping the Mann Cup-winning Six Nations Chiefs in the Sr. A season. The public’s eyes were looking ahead to fall of 2024 when 2023 #1 overall pick Dyson Williams is going to be joining the team after his final season at Duke, and with Connor Kelly being traded to Colorado for a draft pick and defensive mainstays Brett Manney (retirement) and John LaFontaine (UFA to NY) moving on,

But with the nature of the COVID year delayed drafts may have had people looking ahead way too quickly because a couple of wild cards revealed themselves when the team won their opener in Vegas.

It was December 9th against the Bandits in the home opener at MVP Arena when Alex Simmons introduced himself to the league as not only a promising rookie but as the new face of the FireWolves offense, following in the path of Connor Kelly in 2023 and Joe Resetarits in 2022. Except for the 2022 fourth overall pick, who Glenn Clark lauded last offseason for his consistency throughout his junior career in St. Catharines and collegiate career at Denver and then 5th year at Syracuse, he’s going to be on a path to lead the right side for years to come. Simmons had 5 goals and 3 assists in his second career game to lead the FireWolves to a 17-13 upset of the reigning champs in their season opener.

In the second matchup between Buffalo and Albany, the other wild card was the one to take over, with 2022 17th overall pick, Tye Kurtz, setting a season high of 6 goals as the FireWolves won the road leg of the head-to-head as well 13-10 over the Matt Vinc-less Bandits.

The rookies Simmons and Kurtz were atop the rookie leaderboard in points, combining for 175 between the two of them. For the left side, he’s only 26, but Ethan Walker led as the oldest member of the offense with an 85 point season in a 29 point jump from his first season with the FireWolves last season. With John Piatelli sidelined with injury for most of the season, Travis Longboat returned from a season-long injury of his own with 57 points in his first full season after making his debut back in 2020 with the Riptide and then 2 games with the 2022 Swarm. To round out the depth up front, the FireWolves boasted a trio of lefty sparkplugs who each had big moments on their way to career best seasons. 2023 deadline acquisition Marshall Powless, the 23 year old who was the 7th overall pick in 2020, followed up on 27 points in 7 games with Albany last spring with 44 points in a full season in 2024. After falling off the Panther City depth chart in camp, another 24 year old in Nathan Grenon signed on with the FireWolves and had 30 points in 15 games in a primarily inside role which led to him stirring up defenses on multiple occasions throughout the season. He was the one to get into a shoving match with Steve Priolo in the Buffalo game that started the roughhousing that was highlighted by Justin Martin fighting Colton Watkinson. Then finally, a trade of Thomas Vaesen to Vegas brought in (another) 24 year old Sam Firth. After playing a fair amount of defense in his rookie year with the Desert Dogs, Firth had 47 points as another important piece of that left side’s secondary scoring.

The breakout offense and the return to form of Doug Jamieson got the spotlight for the 2024 version of the Albany FireWolves, but that is in no way to diminish the role of an incredibly scrappy defense, which is led by their captain, Colton Watkinson in his 6th season. Watkinson, along with Jackson Nishimura and Nick Chaykowsky, have transitioned from young sparks in New England to the core of this finals-bound FireWolves back door, causing 33 total turnovers and picking up a combined 285 loose balls (127 for Chaykowsky alone). This was along with another jump in production from second year player and 2021 16th overall pick, Patrick Kaschalk, who had 113 loose balls, 11 caused turnovers, and a team-high 13 blocked shots to go along with 14 points sprinkled in as well. In addition to his faceoff duties, which led to him leading the team with 167 loose balls, Joe Nardella provided 16 caused turnovers of his own in his full 18 game return this season. Mike Byrne filling in at the dot and doing a lot of the dirty work in his defensive shifts on his way to a team-high 19 caused tunrovers and 84 loose balls. Midseason acquisitions in John Wagner and Anthony Joaquim helped to further bolster the defense as well.

An 8.34 GAA and .839 sv% has managed to be another step up from a fantastic 10.12 GAA .800 sv% season for Doug Jamieson on his way to a goalie of the year nominee. Glenn Clark’s team hasn’t had too many down moments in their three playoff games so far, but Jamieson has been there to help out time after time, especially in a closer series with the Seals than his dominant 3 GA in the opening round against the FireWolves. And for those following along at home, even he is only 27.

The Matchup

The FireWolves that lost 5 in row in their last 6 games are not the FireWolves that are entering the NLL Finals, but they are also not the team that started 10-2. The evolution of the team is important in understanding how the Bandits defense will need to attack their offense. While we don’t have the [public 😉] data to understand whether or not the early season FireWolves were riding a long shooting bender, the drop off in offense in their losses certainly pointed that way. But at the same time, it hasn’t been their shooting that has gotten them past the Thunderbirds and Seals. Goals have been inching closer to the net with each week which has improved their efficiency, while their transition game has continued to get them the couple of extra goals while they have done a good job of limiting transition against.

In the opening round, the set Albany defense fully neutralized the Thunderbirds offense took the left side out of the game, with the majority of the shots coming from the righty shooters of Halifax outside of a team-high 18 shots from Dawson Theede, who was held without a point. Cody Jamieson and Ryan Benesch were limited to an assist each and only 14 total shots between them. The better Seals offense was still able to manage their better shooters getting theirs, but they were able to force 30 of 69 shots off in Game 1 and another 20 in game 2, albeit in that one they gave up 61 shots on goal. Buffalo’s high-powered offense should still be able to get theirs, but to get ahead, the likes of Chris Cloutier, Tehoka Nanticoke, and Chase Fraser will need to chip in with their championship-level games to support Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne.

Albany’s greatest strength has been the ability to draw penalties in this playoff run. After 8 powerplays in the first round, they had 7 more in Game 1 of the semis and 10 in game 2, which doesn’t include the late game majors and misconducts in the round-ending games. While their special teams which were at the bottom of the leaderboards for the majority of the season continued to struggle in the first two games before being an even 5 for 10 in Game 2 of the semis, the time they spend with a man up takes away entire quarters worth of time that the opponent’s even strength offense can attack. Which of course means, more than ever not just because it’s the finals, discipline is going to be crucial on both sides of the ledger.

And lastly that brings us to two goaltenders on the top of their game. Doug Jamieson’s consistency has seen very few cracks for most of the season, and his preparation has kept him in position for not only a high volume of saves, but many where his positioning has almost been perfect. Meanwhile Matt Vinc has played all 3 playoff games so far with plenty of urgency and stretching out for extra saves even while trusting his angles and the guys in front of him. And the goalie matchup is a perfect microcosm of this series. You have a team in Albany that has proven since the season started that being young and being inexperienced just does not affect them — they just don’t care about those labels and play above them. But now you’re going up against the team with the most experience in this spot and all of the intangibles playing at the same level as they are. It’s going to be a war.

I’d predict low scoring chess matches but I also predicted both semifinals would go 3 so what do I know at this point…

Neat History Fun Facts

What seems like a first time finals matchup is technically one of the most common finals matchups ever. Even before the Bandits defeated the New England Black Wolves in the first round of the 2019 playoffs and even before the Bandits swept them in the 2016 Eastern Finals, the Black Wolves were previously the original Philadelphia Wings, so this is (again) technically the 5th finals matchup between the franchises (and you can read about those 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1996 finals among the rest of the finals appearances before the Expected Buffalo Era here). The last Bandits-Wings playoff matchup came in the first round in 2008, where the Bandits won 14-12 on the way to their 4th championship.