Buffalo, New York- (KeyBank Center) Tonight the Buffalo Bandits will be looking to eliminate their QEW rivals for the 3rd straight year with a win in game #2 tonight at the KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo before a large crowd in Banditland. The Bandits are coming off their most impressive win of the season with a dominating 12-4 win over Toronto at the First Ontario Center in Hamilton, led by Kyle Buchanan with 3 goals, 1 assist for 4 points, Josh Byrne with 1 goal and 4 assists and goalie Matt Vinc who was outstanding in net for Buffalo with 53 saves and tying a franchise record he set last season with only allowing 4 goals to a very talented Toronto Rock team.
The Bandits have defeated the Rock three times this season with 16-14 regular season win at Hamilton, and 14-12 home win over the Rock on March 16th. The Buffalo Bandits are 8-3 all time against Toronto Rock in the post-season and 3-1 at home.
Key player(s) on the Toronto Rock to watch out for: Mitch DeSnoo, Corey Small, Challen Rogers, goalie Nick Rose, Mark Matthews, and for the hometown Buffalo Bandits: Goalie Matt Vinc, Dhane Smith, Josh Byrne, Kyle Buchanan who had a hat trick vs Toronto on Friday night in game #1 and the hard working Tehoka Nanticoke, Chase Fraser.
The Buffalo Bandits for the second straight game struck first with a nice goal by Dhane Smith assisted by Tehoka Nanticoke to go up 1-0 early in the 1st at the very noisy KeyBank Center. The Toronto Rock even up the score at 1-1 on a nice goal by Chris Boushy from Tom Schreiber and then another quick goal to take their 1st lead of this series at 2-1 on a goal by Dan Craig, assisted by Tom Schreiber and Mark Matthews.
The Buffalo Bandits lead 3-2 over Toronto after the 1st quarter on goals by Smith, Buchanan (PP) and Nanticoke before a nice Sunday crowd of 16,312 plus fans at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
The Toronto Rock playing their best quarter of the series outscored Buffalo 4-0 to take a 6-3 lead at half-time and their power play was very effective in the 1st half at the KeyBank going 3 for 5 helped on a late 5 minute major penalty to Buffalo’s Ian McKay. Toronto’s big guns Tom Schreiber 1 goal, 4 assists for 5 points and Mark Matthews with 1 goal, 3 assists for 4 points and Nick Rose was solid in net for Toronto in the 1st half.
The two teams exchanged goals in the 3rd quarter with the Toronto Rock fighting for their playoff lives up 7-4 over Buffalo after 3 quarters of play at the KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo.
After a early goal by Toronto’s Mark Matthews extended the Rock’s lead to 8-4 with 10 minutes left, the Buffalo Bandits showed a lot of resilience and went on a 6-0 run led by the hard working forward #95 Chase Fraser with 3 goals in the final frame along with pair of goals from Josh Byrne, and a single from Tehoka Nanticoke all in a 8:10 minute span that had the 16,312 Bandits fans erupting in pure joy for their defending National Lacrosse League Champion Buffalo Bandits. The Bandits defeated their QEW rivals for the 3rd straight year and swept the best of 3 series in 2 games with a 10-8 exciting comeback win over a very good Toronto Rock team.
The Buffalo Bandits were led by star player Josh Byrne with 2 goals, 5 assists for 7 points and Byrne in his NLL playoff career hit 40 goal mark and now has 99 career playoff points in his career. My three starts of the game were: Josh Byrne, Chase Fraser with a 3 goal performance all in the final quarter, and from the visiting Toronto Rock forward Mark Matthews with 2 goals, 5 assists for 7 points in a losing effort for Toronto. The Buffalo Bandits are now the 4th National Lacrosse League team to play in 4 straight National Lacrosse League Finals (2019, 2022,2023, 2024) and will take on the Albany Firewolves who defeated San Diego (2-0) in their best of 3 series to reach the NLL Finals for the 1st time in franchise history.
In the 2023/2024 NLL regular season the Firewolves were 2-0 vs Buffalo winning both games at home and at the KeyBank Center by the score’s of 17-13 on opening night and 13-10 win over Buffalo at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo back in February.
The Buffalo Bandits defensively in their last 5 games (2) in regular season and playoff games vs Georgia & Toronto have allowed less than in 10 goals by their opponents: 7,5,9,4, 8 and this is due to the play of future Hall of Fame goalie Matt Vinc along with the recent acquisitions of Connor Farrell and veteran defensemen Paul Dawson who has provided leadership and experience to Buffalo’s defensive core.
The 2024 National Lacrosse League Championship Finals best of 3 will start in Albany, NY for game #1 on Friday, May 17th at 7pm EST, game #2 is back at the KeyBank Center on Saturday, May 18th at 7:30 pm and if there is a 3rd and deciding game in this finals, it will take place back on Friday, May 24th at Albany.
Please check out the post-game media interviews with Buffalo Head Coach John Tavares along with Bandits player(s) Chase Fraser, Dhane Smith as they all spoke with the local Buffalo media (including myself) after their comeback win over the Toronto Rock and having another chance to repeat as National League Champions for the Bandits 6th overall championship in franchise history and for the 2nd time in team history which was first done in 1992 & 1993 seasons.
I, did a pre-game interview with TSN National Lacrosse League analyst Pat Gregoire which you can view below courtesy of my You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chrispomaylivewithcdpsport5517 and check out my pre-game interview with 2 member’s of Banditland (best fan base in the National Lacrosse League) https://youtu.be/bxTF5FEiDoE?si=xjYzte9KH9RCvGgO
For more information about the National Lacrosse League please visit their website: https://www.nll.com/ and for tickets for the NLL Finals you can visit the Buffalo Bandits website: https://bandits.com/ and if you are travelling to Albany you can visit the Firewolves website: https://albanyfirewolves.com/
View my digital media content & previous radio shows with visiting my website at: https://beacons.ai/chrisdpomay
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