MATT VOLZ
Sports Editor
In the sports world, Buffalo is often seen as a city of losing.
Because the Bills and Sabres have never brought home their respective league championships, outsiders often see the city as a sports disaster.
Don’t tell that to the Buffalo Bandits, though.
Buffalo’s indoor lacrosse team is headed to the National Lacrosse League Finals for the fourth straight season, in hopes of bringing home a second consecutive championship.
The Bandits reached the NLL Finals in 2019, losing to the Calgary Roughnecks. After that season, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the championship wasn’t played in either 2020 or 2021.
When the league’s playoffs returned in 2022, the Bandits again reached the NLL Finals and lost a winner-take-all game to the Colorado Mammoth in Buffalo.
Last year’s playoffs played out almost the exact same way they had in 2022. Buffalo swept the Toronto Rock in the Eastern Conference Finals to reach the championship series, and again, they were staring down the Colorado Mammoth.
In the same fashion as 2022, the Bandits won Game 1 at home before dropping Game 2 in Denver, setting up a winner-take-all third game at KeyBank Center.
However, it was different this time. The Bandits steamrolled the Mammoth, 13-4, to bring home their first championship since 2008 and the fifth in franchise history.
As a lifelong Buffalo sports fan, the championship felt like an 800-pound weight being lifted off my shoulders.
I couldn’t make it to the championship game, as I was doing play-by-play for a local baseball team, but I watched from my living room as my team, finally, celebrated a championship.
I’ll admit, as the final seconds ticked off the clock, I dropped to my knees and cried tears of joy and relief on my kitchen floor.
My Bandits journey began when I was about ten years old, and my family was visiting some friends in Buffalo. We had never been to a lacrosse game before, and we watched as the Bandits defeated the Minnesota (now Georgia) Swarm, 12-9.
I remember seeing current team captain Steve Priolo get into a fight in that game, and from that moment on I was hooked.
One of my favorite Bandits-related memories was from my second Bandits game.
Again, we were visiting our friends in Buffalo, and we had gotten some sort of ticket package deal that was sponsored by McDonald’s.
We had 14 of us going to the game, so we all needed to eat obviously.
Next thing we knew, we had hundreds — yes, hundreds — of Chicken McNuggets and fries sitting on the table in front of us.
I think one of my friends ate nearly 50 McNuggets by himself.
It was the coolest and most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen to this day.
Although my Bandits game trips don’t include an obscene amount of fast food anymore, I still love going to the games.
I became a first-time season ticket holder this year, and it’s been one heck of a ride.
I’ll be there for Game 2 of the NLL Finals, which will be at KeyBank Center on Saturday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m.
If Buffalo wins the first game of the series, they could clinch the title with a win in Banditland.
It would be a dream come true for that 10-year-old version of myself, the kid who hoped, but never believed he’d see one of his teams win a title.
His team has a chance to make that dream twice as real.
