MATT VOLZ

Editor in Chief

The greatest run in the history of Buffalo sports is over. 

The Buffalo Bandits will not win a fourth straight championship, and it’ll be the first time since 2018 that they won’t reach the NLL Finals. 

In the opening round of the playoffs on Saturday, April 25, the fifth seed Bandits fell to the four seed Georgia Swarm, 17-10. 

The game also marked the first time the Bandits didn’t begin the playoffs at home since 2016. 

The first half of the season was not kind to Buffalo, as they found themselves at 4-6 through Week 13. 

Those six losses included a four-game losing streak in late January and early February where the Bandits looked like a shell of themselves. 

To make matters worse, three of those losses were to teams who would eventually miss the playoffs. 

The other was a 20-9 drubbing at the hands of the Colorado Mammoth. 

After an 11-9 loss to the Vancouver Warriors on Friday, Feb. 20, hope seemed lost for the three-time defending champions. 

To make matters worse, their star forward was invisible throughout the streak. 

Josh Byrne has been one of the NLL’s best scorers since the Bandits drafted him first overall in 2017. 

Byrne was named the league’s MVP in 2024 after an explosive 53-goal, 135-point season. 

Last season, Byrne tallied 90 assists, the fifth most in a single season in NLL history. 

But the same player who has grown accustomed to averaging two or three goals per game couldn’t seem to find the back of the net in January. 

Over the course of Buffalo’s four straight losses, Byrne scored a grand total of three goals. 

His worst game in the goal department came on Saturday, Feb. 7 against the last place Philadelphia Wings. 

Byrne was held completely scoreless as Buffalo dropped a 13-11 decision to a team who is ceasing operations this summer. 

As the Bandits faced the first place Saskatchewan Rush on Friday, Feb. 27, Byrne again struggled to score. 

He facilitated Buffalo’s offense well, tallying seven assists, but his scoring touch seemed to be gone. 

His team was shut out in the fourth quarter as the Rush rallied from a 10-7 deficit to force overtime. 

After nearly seven minutes of sudden death lacrosse, the former MVP finally woke up. 

Byrne launched a shot past Rush goalie Frank Scigliano for the win, and fans could almost see the monkey fly off the back of number 22. 

The overtime winner kickstarted a resurgent second half of the season for Byrne. He scored multiple goals in all but one game for the rest of the regular season, and he tallied seven or more points in six straight games. 

Byrne’s individual success correlated to a Bandits surge, and the win over Saskatchewan was the first of what would become a seven-game win streak. 

During Buffalo’s losing streak, they struggled against some of the worst teams in the league. 

They enjoyed the exact opposite experience during the seven-game win streak, as they beat several top teams during that stretch. 

Other wins included a revenge victory over Colorado on Friday, March 13, a second win over Saskatchewan on Saturday, March 28 and a dominant 15-5 win over Vancouver on Saturday, April 4. 

After a 12-6 win over the Rochester Knighthawks on Saturday, April 11, the Bandits sat near the top of the league with an 11-6 record. 

A season that looked to be headed for disaster was ultimately good enough for a playoff spot, and the rest of the league worried that Buffalo might be gearing up for yet another deep postseason run. 

Heading into the final game of the season, all the Bandits needed to do was win, and they’d earn a home playoff game in the first round. 

There was even a scenario where Buffalo could earn the top overall seed, but that scenario required the league’s top two teams to lose to two of its worst teams. 

Regardless, the Bandits just needed to take care of business against the lowly Oshawa FireWolves, and they’d open the postseason at KeyBank Center. 

That’s when the wheels fell off the bus. 

Buffalo’s offense came out dead flat against Oshawa, and they trailed 7-0 deep into the second quarter. 

A FireWolves team that boasted the NLL’s second worst scoring offense this season was toying with the three-time defending champions. 

Joe Resetarits finally woke the offense up from their slumber with a power play goal, ending a scoring drought that lasted more than 25 minutes of game time. 

Buffalo pulled within three before the end of the half, but another lengthy goal drought in the third quarter sealed their fate. 

The Bandits lost, 12-8, ensuring that they’d have to go on the road to start the playoffs. 

Their reward for blowing it against Oshawa was a trip to the South to face the Swarm and their world class goalie, Brett Dobson. 

Dobson, a graduate of nearby St. Bonaventure University, recorded a season for the ages in 2026. 

He stopped 84.7% of the shots he faced, and he carried a miniscule 7.86 goals against average (GAA). 

Both of those stats are NLL single-season records. 

He’s a front runner for the league’s MVP award, and although it’ll be a tight race between him and Warriors forward Keegan Bal, Dobson’s record numbers will — and should — put him over the top. 

If Dobson wins MVP, he’ll become just the third goalie ever to win the award, after the Bandits’ Steve Dietrich in 2006 and Calgary’s Christian Del Bianco in 2023. 

With all of this in mind, it came as no surprise that Buffalo couldn’t get much of anything in the net. 

The Bandits scored just one goal in the first quarter, a transition marker from Dylan Robinson midway through the period. 

Again, scoring droughts became an issue for Buffalo, and offensive struggles turned into defensive lapses. 

Georgia’s offense wasn’t having much trouble lighting up the scoreboard, and Bandits coach John Tavares briefly pulled Matt Vinc from the net in the second half. 

The Bandits trailed 9-3 near the end of the third quarter, and they looked like a team that had finally run out of gas. 

Ian MacKay completed a hat trick in the second half, but that was the only bright spot for Buffalo. 

As the final horn sounded, the Bandits fell, 17-10. 

The loss marked a deflating end to what has been a run for the ages over the last few seasons. 

In 2019, the Bandits broke free from a minor stretch of down years and stormed their way to the NLL Finals. 

They fell to the Calgary Roughnecks in that series, but it was a clear sign that Buffalo would be a formidable force for years to come. 

The Bandits were on their way to making the playoffs again in 2020 when the season stopped due to COVID-19. 

The rest of the season was cancelled, and the 2021 season was never played. 

When the Bandits returned in 2022, they were an immediate powerhouse, cruising to a league-best 14-4 record. 

They got back to the NLL Finals, only to have their dreams dashed by Colorado. 

The 2023 season was another dominant one for Buffalo, as they rolled to another 14-4 mark. 

Once again, they reached the NLL Finals, and once again, they faced Colorado. 

For the second straight year, the series reached a winner-take-all third game, but this one would be different. 

Buffalo steamrolled the Mammoth, 13-4, capturing their fifth championship in team history and their first since 2008. 

2024 was an up-and-down season for the Bandits, but they still earned the fourth seed with an 11-7 record. 

They made their way back to the NLL Finals, facing the FireWolves. 

Buffalo won both games of the series, winning back-to-back titles for the first time since 1992 and 1993. 

Last year, they made their fifth straight NLL Finals appearance, taking down the Saskatchewan Rush for their third straight championship. 

The only other NLL team to win three straight titles was the Rochester Knighthawks from 2012 to 2014, and they did so with a familiar face in net. 

Vinc was the goalie for both teams’ three-peats, making him the only player in league history to accomplish that feat. 

He turns 44 in June, so there’s a significant chance he’ll call it a career this summer. 

If he does, he’ll retire as the unquestioned greatest goalie in the history of box lacrosse. 

Nobody in the history of the game has played or won more games than Vinc, and it’s not particularly close. 

Vinc isn’t the only Bandit who may be nearing the end of his career, either. 

Kyle Buchanan will turn 39 before the start of next season, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him hang up the pads soon. 

Byrne and Dhane Smith are also on the wrong side of 30, so they may be entering their last few productive seasons. 

It’s also no secret that the Bandits haven’t gotten premium talent from the draft, but that’s to be expected when you’re picking at the end of the first round each year. 

The next few years of Bandits lacrosse may be a bit more on the lean side, but that’s worth it considering the ride they’ve taken their fans on over the last half decade. 

No Bandits fan wants to say that this may be the end of an era, but it feels like we may be there. 

If we are, at least we’ll always have the mid-2020s dynasty to look back on and smile. 

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Stats for this story were provided by nllstats.com, a league-wide database run by NLL writer Graeme Perrow.

Check out his commentary on nllchatter.com as well as his updates on X (@GraemePerrow).