2024 Buffalo Bandits season

2024 Buffalo Bandits
NLL Champions
League	NLL
2024 record	11-7
Home record	6-3
Road record	5-4
Goals for	237
Goals against	212
General Manager	Steve Dietrich
Coach	John Tavares
Captain	Steve Priolo
Alternate captains	Dhane Smith, Nick Weiss
Arena	KeyBank Center
Average attendance	16,974
Team leaders
Goals	Josh Byrne (53)
Assists	Dhane Smith (101)
Points	Josh Byrne (135)
Penalties in minutes	Nick Weiss (31)
Loose Balls	Ian MacKay (160)
Wins	Matt Vinc (11)
Goals against average	Steven Orleman (10.42)
← 2023 season 2025 season →

The Buffalo Bandits are a lacrosse team based in Buffalo, New York playing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The 2024 season was their 32nd season in the NLL.

The Bandits finished the regular season with an 11-7 record and the 4th seed in the playoffs. Buffalo beat the Georgia Swarm, 10-9, in the quarterfinals in overtime. The Bandits would go on to sweep the Toronto Rock in 2 games to advance to their 4th straight NLL Finals appearance. In the Finals, Buffalo swept the Albany FireWolves in 2 games to repeat as NLL Champions for the first time since the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

Regular season

NLL Standings Reference:

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Toronto Rock – xz	18	15	3	.833	0.0	7–2	8–1	218	169	+49	12.11	9.39
2	San Diego Seals – x	18	13	5	.722	2.0	8–1	5–4	210	178	+32	11.67	9.89
3	Albany FireWolves – x	18	11	7	.611	4.0	5–4	6–3	206	191	+15	11.44	10.61
4	Buffalo Bandits – x	18	11	7	.611	4.0	6–3	5–4	237	212	+25	13.17	11.78
5	Georgia Swarm – x	18	10	8	.556	5.0	6–3	4–5	198	197	+1	11.00	10.94
6	Halifax Thunderbirds – x	18	10	8	.556	5.0	6–3	4–5	228	200	+28	12.67	11.11
7	Panther City Lacrosse Club – x	18	9	9	.500	6.0	5–4	4–5	205	202	+3	11.39	11.22
8	Rochester Knighthawks – x	18	8	10	.444	7.0	4–5	4–5	214	226	−12	11.89	12.56
9	New York Riptide	18	8	10	.444	7.0	4–5	4–5	206	234	−28	11.44	13.00
10	Saskatchewan Rush	18	8	10	.444	7.0	4–5	4–5	217	210	+7	12.06	11.67
11	Calgary Roughnecks	18	8	10	.444	7.0	6–3	2–7	198	194	+4	11.00	10.78
12	Vancouver Warriors	18	8	10	.444	7.0	5–4	3–6	202	211	−9	11.22	11.72
13	Philadelphia Wings	18	6	12	.333	9.0	1–8	5–4	198	233	−35	11.00	12.94
14	Las Vegas Desert Dogs	18	5	13	.278	10.0	2–7	3–6	176	223	−47	9.78	12.39
15	Colorado Mammoth	18	5	13	.278	10.0	4–5	1–8	193	226	−33	10.72	12.56

Game log

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
1	December 9, 2023	@ Albany FireWolves	MVP Arena	L 13–17		3,406	0–1
2	December 16, 2023	San Diego Seals	KeyBank Center	W 12–9		17,200	1–1
3	December 29, 2023	Georgia Swarm	KeyBank Center	L 8–9		16,763	1–2
4	January 6, 2024	Colorado Mammoth	KeyBank Center	W 12–8		15,147	2–2
5	January 13, 2024	@ Rochester Knighthawks	Blue Cross Arena	W 15–13		8,167	3–2
6	January 19, 2024	New York Riptide	KeyBank Center	L 13–15		14,440	3–3
7	January 27, 2024	@ Toronto Rock	FirstOntario Centre	W 16–14		8,586	4–3
8	February 3, 2024	Rochester Knighthawks	KeyBank Center	W 15–14		17,135	5–3
9	February 16, 2024	@ Halifax Thunderbirds	Scotiabank Centre	L 12–14		7,824	5–4
10	February 24, 2024	Albany FireWolves	KeyBank Center	L 10–13		17,953	5–5
11	March 1, 2024	@ Vancouver Warriors	Rogers Arena	L 12–13		10,355	5–6
12	March 8, 2024	Saskatchewan Rush	KeyBank Center	W 15–14	OT	16,596	6–6
13	March 16, 2024	Toronto Rock	KeyBank Center	W 14–12		18,463	7–6
14	March 22, 2024	@ Panther City Lacrosse Club	Dickies Arena	L 11–12	OT	3,045	7–7
15	March 30, 2024	@ Philadelphia Wings (2018-)	Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia)	W 18–12		8,182	8–7
16	April 5, 2024	@ Colorado Mammoth	Ball Arena	W 13–11		11,252	9–7
17	April 13, 2024	Calgary Roughnecks	KeyBank Center	W 14–7		19,070	10–7
18	April 20, 2024	@ Las Vegas Desert Dogs	Michelob Ultra Arena	W 14–5		6,051	11–7

Playoffs

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
NLL Quarterfinals	April 27, 2024	Georgia Swarm	KeyBank Center	W 10–9	OT	17,865	1–0
NLL Semifinals (Game 1)	May 3, 2024	@ Toronto Rock	FirstOntario Centre	W 12–4		7,130	2–0
NLL Semifinals (Game 2)	May 5, 2024	Toronto Rock	KeyBank Center	W 10–8		16,312	3–0
NLL Finals (Game 1)	May 17, 2024	@ Albany FireWolves	MVP Arena	W 12–8		5,032	4–0
NLL Finals (Game 2)	May 18, 2024	Albany FireWolves	KeyBank Center	W 15–13		19,070	5–0

Roster

Buffalo Bandits roster
Active (21-man) roster				Inactive roster		Coaches
Goaltenders 30 Devlin Shanahan 48 Matt Vinc Defensemen 8 Dylan Robinson 15 Adam Bomberry 21 Justin Martin 23 Steve Priolo (C) 25 Matt Spanger 37 Ethan O'Connor 53 Justin Robinson 94 Bryce Sweeting		Forwards 1 Tehoka Nanticoke 2 Chris Cloutier 10 Brad McCulley 12 Sam La Roue 22 Josh Byrne 73 Brandon Robinson 91 Kyle Buchanan 92 Dhane Smith (A) 95 Chase Fraser Transition 4 Ian MacKay 6 Max Adler 20 Nick Weiss (A) 27 Dalton Sulver		Practice Squad 29 Carter McKenzie 44 Nathaniel Kozevnikov 70 Joel Tayler Holdout Alec Tulett 5 Devyn Mayea 57 Doug Buchan 64 Greg Harnett Protected list Justin Guterding Unable to play 83 Frank Brown		Head Coach John Tavares Assistant Coaches Steve Dietrich Anthony Cosmo Eric Vinc Equipment Manager Ted Cordingley Legend * Suspended list (C) Captain (A) Alternate captain Roster updated 2022-02-11 NLL Transactions

Entry Draft

The 2023 NLL Entry Draft took place on September 11, 2023. The Bandits made the following selections:

Round	Overall	Player	College/Club
2	38	Evan Constantopoulos	Oakville Buzz Jr. A
3	53	Jake Rosa	St. Bonaventure
4	68	Kellen Pulera	St. Bonaventure
5	82	Duncan Carte	Brampton Express(ALL)

External links

• 2024 Buffalo Bandits at nllstats.com