Back to Back: Bandits claim second straight NLL title with win over FireWolves

BUFFALO, N.Y. — For the second year in a row, the Buffalo Bandits are atop the National Lacrosse League.

The Bandits won their second straight NLL title Saturday night at a sold-out KeyBank Center, defeating the Albany FireWolves 15-13 to cap off the NLL Finals sweep.

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With this victory, Buffalo has now won the NLL Cup six times in franchise history. This is the first time the Bandits have won back-to-back championships since 1992-93.

Kyle Buchanan gave the crowd of 19,000 at Banditland the first goal to cheer on, when he opened the scoring for Buffalo less than two minutes into the game.

That started an 8-3 run for Buffalo that lasted the first 21 minutes of the game.

Albany, however, managed to rally through the rest of the first half and scored early in the third quarter to get within one goal, at 9-8.

From there, the Bandits regained control of the game, scoring five straight goals to close out the third quarter. Chase Fraser scored three of the goals during that stretch, with Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith scoring the other two.

Fraser led the way for the Bandits with five goals on the night, while new MVP Byrne had the most points on the night with nine, including eight assists.

After winning four championships with Buffalo as a player, John Tavares also won his second title with the Bandits as the team’s head coach.