Bandits rally back to NLL finals

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Bandits’ back-to-back championship pursuit is returning to the National Lacrosse League finals.

Buffalo advanced to league title games for the 13th time in franchise history and fourth consecutive postseason, rallying in the fourth quarter to beat the Toronto Rock 10-8 on Sunday night in front of a crowd of 16,312 at KeyBank Center. The Bandits’ eight straight playoff win against their rival clinched the best-of-three semifinal series, following Friday night’s 8-4 victory in Hamilton.

The reigning champion Bandits will seek their sixth title in the NLL finals against Albany, which won its semifinal series against San Diego. Albany won both regular season matchups to earn the home field advantage and will host the series opener May 17. Game 2 will be in Buffalo the next night.

Closing out the series with a sensational six-goal run in an eight-minute span of the fourth quarter, the Bandits came back to win Sunday night after trailing 8-4 entering the final period.

“That’s what championship teams do,” coach John Tavares said. “They always believe that they can win at any time in the game.”

Chase Fraser led Buffalo with three goals, scoring the first goal in the fourth, along with the ones that tied the score and gave Buffalo the lead with 5:49 remaining. Fraser’s scoring surge frenzied the Banditland faithful, and he credited their noisy response for fueling the rally.

“The energy they give us, to keep our confidence up, it’s incredible,” Fraser said. “When one goes in, the crowd gets into it. Then the second one gets even louder. The third and the fourth, you can’t even hear yourself think. Which is awesome. We don’t need to think out there.”

NLL scoring leader Josh Byrne had a hand in all six goals in the fourth quarter and finished with two goals and five assists. Co-star Dhane Smith tallied two goals and four assists, moving into second all-time with 112 postseason assists, four behind Tavares’ NLL record.

“It was the weirdest shift of events I’ve ever been a part of,” Smith said. “Every goal was bang-bang-bang. It felt like a movie.”

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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here .