Buffalo, New York- (KeyBank Center)
Coming off a impressive 12-8 road win last night at the MVP arena in Albany, NY last night the Buffalo Bandits are back home at the sold out KeyBank Center (Banditland) for game #2 tonight with a chance to repeat as National Lacrosse League Champions with a win tonight over the visiting Albany Firewolves. The Bandits in game #1 were lead by star player’s Dhane Smith with 2 goals, 9 assists for 11 points and the NLL MVP Josh Byrne had 3 goals, 4 assists for 7 points in their win over Albany. The Bandits for the 6th straight game held their opponents till under 10 goals.
The visiting Albany Firewolves are led by goalie Doug Jamieson, rookie sensation Alex Simmons, and Tye Kurtz, and the Bandits are led by star player’s Josh Byrne (MVP of NLL) and Dhane Smith, along with goalie Matt Vinc. The Firewolves facing elimination on the road will have to get off to a strong start in the 1st quarter and silence the noisy sold out Banditland. For the Bandits to win game #2 at home they need a strong 1st quarter and not let Albany hang around in game #2 and stay out of the penalty box (stay disciplined). The Bandits are 5-0 all time against the Albany Firewolves in the post-season and 3-0 at the KeyBank Center.
The Bandits lead 4-3 after the 1st quarter at a very loud KeyBank Center on goals by Smith, Buchanan, Robinson, Nanticoke and Albany had goals by Simmons, Kaschalk, Firth.
Better second quarter for the Albany Firewolves cutting Buffalo’s lead down to 9-7 at half-time with 4 straight goals at the end of the 2nd quarter with less than a second left in half with a pulled goalie for extra attacker. The Firewolves in the 1st half were led by Sam Firth with 1 goal, 3 assists for 4 points and Josh Byrne led the Bandits with 7 assists for 7 points.
The Bandits offence found itself with outscoring Albany 5-1 in the 3rd quarter led by Buffalo’s Chase Fraser with 5 goals along with 2 assists this evening and the Bandits heading into the 4th quarter led Albany 14-8 before a very vocal Buffalo crowd. The Buffalo defense has done a nice job on Tye Kurtz holding him to only 2 assists after the 3rd quarter.
The Bandits in the 4th quarter had a big enough lead that even with Albany outscoring Buffalo 5-1 in the final quarter before 19,070 fans in a sold out & noisy KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo, the Buffalo Bandits hung onto a 15-13 win over a very young, talented, hard working, well coached Albany Firewolves team to repeat as National Lacrosse League Champions 2023 &2024 and 6th NLL championship in team history.
Buffalo’s Josh Byrne who was recently named the National Lacrosse League Regular Season MVP, won the NLL Finals MVP and led the Bandits to a game #2 win and championship with another outstanding performance with 1 goal, 8 assists for 9 points. The Bandits had a well balance offence in this game vs Albany with Dhane Smith with 2 goals, 5 assists for 7 points and (18) points total in the 2 games vs Albany and could of easily been named MVP as well. Chase Fraser (British Columbia native) had one of his best games of the season with 5 goals, 2 assists for 7 points and the hard working Chris Cloutier contributed with 2 goals, 3 assists for 5 points & Kyle Buchanan with 1 goal, 2 assists for 3 points and goalie Matt Vinc with 36 saves in winning his 5th NLL championship in his 9th appearance in the NLL Finals.
The Buffalo Bandits are the 1st NLL team to repeat as NLL Champions since the 2015/2016 Edmonton/Saskatchewan Rush. Buffalo Head Coach John Tavares has been a part of all 6 National Lacrosse League championships with the Bandits, 4 as a player in 92, 93, 96, 08, and now as a Head Coach in 2023, 2024.
Please check out my post-game media interviews with Albany Head Coach Glenn Clark along with player Colton Watkinson and members of the Buffalo Bandits (John Tavares, Ian McKay, Kyle Buchanan) on my You Tube Channel along with a pre-game interview with National Lacrosse League Reporter & Writer Adam Levi and 2 pre-game interviews with Chelsea & Trevor Buffalo Bandits season ticket holders.
Special thank you to Ryan Slabowski, Communications Assistant/Media Relations with the Buffalo Bandits for my media passes/opportunities in covering the 2023/2024 Buffalo Bandits home games this season at the KeyBank Center. The Buffalo Bandits are a first class organization and a great job by everyone from the game day presentation (Chris Swenson, Allie Brady, Buffalo Bandettes, video scoreboard team, Camera Operators, Security etc) and a terrific job by the team’s broadcasting crew in John Gurtler, Steve Bermel, Dave Buchanan on the CW-23 Network in Buffalo as well as 1520 The Bet and WGR 550 in Buffalo with their TV & radio coverage of the team.
If you have never been to a https://www.nll.com/ game before or a Buffalo home game in Banditland https://bandits.com/ check out their official websites and the Buffalo Bandits will be attempting to three peat as National Lacrosse League champions heading into the 2024/2025 season. I’ve been a fan of the National Lacrosse League for less than 3 years and every season I’m enjoying it more and more and the player’s across the league are very talented, skilled and hard working and I guarantee you if you come out to a NLL game whenever you live, you will enjoy the sport and want to come back again as a fan!
Please check out my website at: https://beacons.ai/chrisdpomay as well as my You Tube channel with all of my National Lacrosse League content from this past season: https://www.youtube.com/@chrispomaylivewithcdpsport5517/streams