Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN/WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Bandits are National Lacrosse League champions. Again!
The Bandits swept their best-of-3 championship series against the Albany FireWolves with a 15-13 victory in Game 2 at KeyBank Center, winning their second-straight NLL Cup and sixth championship in franchise history.
Josh Byrne, who was named the NLL’s Most Valuable Player on Friday and Offensive Player of the Year on Thursday, led the Bandits with one goal and eight assists in the win to be named the 2024 NLL Finals MVP.
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Chase Fraser scored a team-high five goals and added two assists, while alternate captain Dhane Smith tallied a pair of goals and five assists for a seven-point performance of his own.
In goal, veteran Matt Vinc stopped 36-of-49 shots faced in the win. It is his fifth career NLL title at the age of 41.
Buffalo won six of its last seven regular season contests to clinch the No. 4 seed in the NLL Playoffs and never looked back. In Round 1 of the playoffs, Buffalo posted a 10-9 overtime win over Georgia in the single-elimination game before sweeping Toronto in the best-of-3 semifinals.
"We’re not done here,' said Smith with TSN’s Brianne Foley following the game. "We want to keep continuing on. We have a great young team. We’re going to keep going here."
With this year's title, the Bandits captured the franchise's sixth NLL championship, which ties the all-time mark with the Toronto Rock and the original Philadelphia Wings organization before their move to New England.
This year marked Buffalo's fourth-straight trip to the NLL Finals, where they went 2-2 between 2019 and 2024. The Bandits lost their first two trips in 2019 and 2022 before beating the Colorado Mammoth in three games last season and Albany in two games in 2024.
The Bandits will host a championship celebration on Sunday, May 19 in Alumni Plaza, beginning at 12 p.m. ET. The event is free and open to all fans, and will begin with an Orange and Black Carpet walk before the team gathers on stage to salute "Banditland" and thank fans for their support throughout the 2023-24 season.