Game 1: Friday, May 12, KeyBank Center, 7:30 pm, TSN, TSN+, ESPN+

Game 2: Saturday, May 13, FirstOntario Centre, 7:00 pm, TSN, TSN+, ESPN+

Game 3, if necessary: Saturday, May 20, KeyBank Center, 7:30 pm, TSN, TSN+, ESPN+

2022 Playoff Recaps

Game 1: Bandits Defeat Rock 18-17 In Buffalo’s Medicine Game

Game 2: Bandits Sweep Rock with 10-9 Win

2023 Game Recaps

December 17: Buffalo’s Defense Steals The Shot in The Middle Quarters as The Bandits Keep The Rock at Bay 11-8

April 1: Rock Bully Bandits to Take First Place Back

April 22: Bandits Defend Their Turf To Clinch East’s 1-Seed

The Matchup

Home Turf

While home floor doesn’t always come into play, especially in the NLL where guys are traveling most weekends regardless of the location, Toronto actually has had some pretty interesting home/road splits this season.

Of course, with their dominance as a whole over the season, the underlyings aren’t too different, but the difference between the home floor going to the Bandits as opposed to the Rock was Buffalo’s ability to win on the road (Their split was 7-2 for each home and road). Toronto’s lone home loss was to Buffalo, and their road losses game at the hands of Buffalo, Halifax, Rochester, and Philadelphia – one for each team in the top 5 in the East. If each team wins their home game this weekend, Buffalo will undoubtedly feel more confident going into the third and decisive game next weekend.

What About Tom?

After his late placement on injured reserve last week in the closing hours before their opening-round win over Halifax, the status of Tom Schreiber has yet to be updated, and it’s expected that Matt Sawyer and Jamie Dawick will keep that one close to the vest. While he is undoubtedly the catalyst for Toronto’s offense, the Rock can be flexible with their depth to account for his absence if it carries into this weekend (and the back-to-back could be big for this as well). Challen Rogers will probably once again move up to play offense if he doesn’t play.

The Sprint

The transition game is the Rock’s greatest strength, and they will need it in full force to advance to the NLL Finals. After having a career year in 2022, 25-year-old Latrell Harris took his game to an even more elevated level in 2023 with 10 goals and 20 assists playing exclusively out the back door. If Rogers does play his traditional transition role this week, the TPOY candidate will certainly also give the Rock their optimal back end. While he only had 8 assists this season, Nick Rose is one of the best outlet passing goalies in the league.

The Bandits don’t run as frequently as Toronto, but as we saw last weekend, their transition game getting involved never hurts when they get involved to assist the high-powered offense.

The Marathon

From Owner/GM Jamie Dawick to Head Coach Matt Sawyer, to every single member of the Rock’s roster, they are sick and tired of losing to the Buffalo Bandits. Win their first championship since 2011 and make their first finals since 2015? Sure that’s the ultimate goal, but they are very aware that it won’t happen without getting past the wall that has stood in their way for four calendar years now.

Their top free agent acquisition, Chris Corbeil, who was brought in with the eyes of adding another lockdown defender to only open their transition game up even more with the increased depth, is finally healthy after an injury in the fall and now has 3 games under his belt to get accustomed to his new teammates. On the offense, Rob Hellyer went to Vegas in the offseason, but they were able to account for this loss with the veteran acquisitions of Stephen Keogh and Corey Small, who each had their most productive seasons in 5+ years. Small helped them go from a righty-heavy offense to one that was more balanced and complimented Dan Craig well on the left side.

And then you add on career years from Tom Schreiber (48G 68A for 116 Points) and Nick Rose (third straight season over an .800 SV% and a sub-9.50 GAA) as the leaders of the team.

But of course, when a team goes all in to get over the hump of one team, that means the team they’re chasing is no slouch either, which of course the Bandits showed throughout the season alongside a newly shown ability to win in multiple different ways, including the defensive struggle that the Rock will be hoping to force in at least one of the two games this weekend.

Outlook

The level of lacrosse that is going to be played this weekend is going to be must-see, whether that is in person or on TSN/ESPN+.

Quick Look Out West: 2-Seed Calgary Roughnecks vs 4-Seed Colorado Mammoth (All Games also on TSN, TSN+, and ESPN+)

Game 1: Thursday, May 11, Ball Arena, 9:30 pm (Games 1 and 2 flipped because of arena availability, as the Calgary Wranglers have home playoff games on both Thursday and Friday Night)

Game 2: Saturday, May 13, Scotiabank Saddledome, 9:30 pm

Game 3, if necessary: Saturday, May 20, Scotiabank Saddledome, 9:30 pm

The last two NLL champions will be facing off with the chance to return to the NLL Finals.

In 11 of their 20 seasons, the Mammoth’s season has ended with a playoff loss to the Roughnecks. Last season, they finally got over that hump, defeating Calgary in the first round on their way to a championship. Each team went 7-2 at home this season, but Calgary was 6-3 on the road compared to a 2-7 record away from Denver for the Mammoth. Of course, the only reason that the Mammoth are still playing is because they took down the Seals in San Diego on Friday Night.

Colorado won the first matchup 9-8 on January 7 in Denver, but Calgary countered with a 13-9 win at home on February 11 and a 16-10 win back in Denver on March 10.

Just like out East, this will be a phenomenal series of must-see television, featuring two of the best goalies in the world.

Photo Credit: NLL