The 2009-10 Season

It seemed like an innocent question.

The Buffalo Bandits had just completed the National Lacrosse League draft in September 2009 in Buffalo's HSBC Arena. General manager and head coach Darris Kilgour was telling a small group of reporters about the Bandits' moves and picks.

Then, a reporter said that Kilgour had said after the previous spring's playoff loss that he was considering giving up some of his responsibilities. Since there had been no announcement over the summer, "Is everything all set for the upcoming season?" he asked.

Yes, Kilgour said. He was stepping down as general manager. Derek Graham would take a more active role in the team's front office, eventually being named associate general manager. Whoa.

"It's not so much that I lost focus on coaching [last year], but I want to focus on coaching again," Kilgour said. "It was either play the chess match of being a GM, or play the checkers match of being the coach. I prefer checkers."

Kilgour, then, had scooped his own team with the news, leaving some mouths open among front office members. It wasn't expected to alter the day-to-day operations of the team much, but it was a big surprise.

The "announcement" capped quite a day for the Bandits. They had traded up into the first round to take Kyle Clancy, and selected defenders Chris Corbeil and Steve Priolo in the second round. Buffalo sent its third round pick to Washington (just moved from San Jose) for Frank Resetarits, a Hamburg native who jumped at the chance to come home and play lacrosse. Jon Harasym was acquired for a draft pick.

The Bandits weren't done making moves in preparation for the 2010 campaign. Phil Sanderson and Pat McCready were off to Toronto. Chris Driscoll came in exchange for Sanderson, while draft picks were acquired for McCready. A.J. Shannon also was signed.

In terms of the league, there were some changes as well. The New York Titans gave up trying to play in the New York area and moved to Orlando, Florida, not exactly known as a lacrosse hotbed. As mentioned, San Jose moved to suburban Seattle and became the Washington Stealth. The Portland Lumberjax decided it couldn't go on, particularly in a difficult economic climate, and folded. Buffalo took Jamison Koesterer in the dispersal draft, but traded him to Washington so he could stay on the West Coast.

It didn't take long to figure out that this would be a difficult season for the Bandits, particularly at the start. Buffalo opened its season in Rochester. Less than 15 minutes before the start of the game, the scratches were announced -- and John Tavares was one of them. The 41-year-old had only missed a few games in his entire, 18-year career with the Bandits. Tavares said after the game that he had a calf injury and just wasn't ready to play.

Without the league's all-time scorer, the Bandits got blasted by the Knighthawks, 10-5. Rochester had some of the top players in the game's history, including Gary Gait, John Grant and Shawn Evans. The Knighthawks showed that again with a 13-11 in Buffalo the following week; again, Tavares was out.

"He's our quarterback. He makes everyone around him better, and right now that's what we're missing," Kilgour said about Tavares.


The schedule didn't do the Bandits any favors at that point. Buffalo played at Washington and Edmonton on back-to-back nights (Jan. 22-23). Those two teams later played for the Western Division playoff championship; they were both better than the Bandits on this particular weekend. It was a confused bunch of lacrosse players who came back home from that road trip.

"Everything's gone wrong," Kilgour said. "The defense can't get a stop, the offense can't get a goal, Kenny [Montour, the starting goalie] cant make a stop."

Mark Steenhuis provided a short-term cure on January 30, as he scored a goal and seven assists to lead the Bandits to an 11-7 win. That was offset by a 14-10 loss to Toronto -- despite two goals and five assists from rookie Clancy -- sink Buffalo's record to 1-5. Montour suffered a concussion in that game; he finished it but missed the next two contests.

That left Buffalo and Philadelphia at the bottom of the East, with a home-and-home series coming up. Tavares finally came back to the lineup, and scored a couple of goals to help the Bandits win, 13-11, in Philadelphia. But the good feelings only lasted a week, as Buffalo lost to the Wings, 15-11, at home. That put the Bandits' record at the halfway point at a dreary 2-6.

"I think it's as low as Buffalo has ever been," defender Billy Dee Smith said.

There was plenty of carnage from the first half. Shannon and Delby Powless were released, and Driscoll was traded to Rochester for a pair of second-round draft choices. Other players bounced in and out of the lineup as Kilgour searched for a good combination.

About the only good news from the first half was that Rich Kilgour has been selected for the NLL's Hall of Fame. Kilgour, who played for the Bandits from 1992 to 2009, was picked right after retirement.

"It was 18 years doing something I loved; it leaves you speechless," Kilgour said about the selection.

The Bandits started the second half with what was easily their best game of the season to date. They beat Orlando, 12-10, on March 6. Steenhuis (six goals and four assists) and Montour (43 saves, including some incredible ones) were the standouts, but the whole team played with emotion and determination.

"We yelled we patted them on the back -- I don't know what clicked this time," Darris Kilgour said. "It's been the same stuff we've been telling them all season. They chose to fight this time."

Still, the Bandits had a big hill in front of them. They had to play two of the teams in front of them in the East on the road on back-to-back nights. And Montour was again suffering from concussion-related symptoms, which would end his season. Mike Thompson saw most of the duty in goal the rest of the way. Luckily, they had Tavares on the roster. On March 12, the Bandits -- who gave up the tying goal with two seconds left -- topped Toronto, 11-10, in overtime on a goal by Tavares. The next night, Tavares came through in overtime again in a 9-8 decision.

In the Toronto game, Kilgour had broken Les Bartley's league record for career coaching wins in regular season games. It was win number 94.

After a week off, Buffalo played in Rochester for the third time in the regular season. In this meeting, the Bandits made Rochester look old and tired in recording a convincing 14-7 win. Buffalo had come all the way back to .500 after an 0-4 start.

The good feelings lasted only a week. Buffalo's next game was against lowly Colorado, the worst team in the West. The Bandits played poorly for 58 minutes, falling behind by 11-7. They scored four goals in the last 86 seconds to tie the game, only to lose when Nick Carlson of the Mammoth scored on a breakaway at 1:25 of overtime.

"We never should have been in that position," Kevin Dostie said about the need for the furious rally.

Back to work, then. Buffalo knocked off Toronto, 13-10, blowing an 8-2 third-quarter lead that turned into a 10-10 tie, only to see Mike Accursi score the game-winning goal. When Accursi was asked if the Bandits ever did things the easy way, he replied, "No ... never." No one was arguing.

That set up an amazingly complex playoff race, with five teams fighting for the four spots. It was still possible for the five teams to finish 8-8, which would leave one team as division co-champion and out of the playoffs. Buffalo could have taken a big step toward clinching a playoff berth with a win in Orlando, and for 26 minutes that looked very possible. The Bandits had a 7-1 lead and seemed to be in control.

Then the rest of the game was played. Buffalo was outscored, 8-0, the rest of the way, which adds up to a 9-7 loss. With the other results factored in, the Bandits' task for the regular season finale became simple -- "It's a case where we win and play more lacrosse, or lose and play golf," Graham said.

The golf clubs could wait. Buffalo grabbed a 7-4 lead in the first half, and held off Boston the rest of the way for a 13-10 win that put the Bandits in third place for the season with an 8-8 record. Brett Bucktooth had the goal of the year along the way:



"It's been a hard year coaching and a hard year playing," Kilgour said. "We just couldn't put it altogether. On nights when we had bad goaltending, we had good offense. On some nights, we had good defense and bad defense."

Steenhuis finished tied for sixth in the league in scoring with 36 goals and led the team with 90 points. Tavares was second on the team with 49 points in only 10 games. While Accursi, Dostie and Bucktooth had good years, players such as Roger Vyse and Sean Greenhalgh came close to disappearing. The offense, which had scored at least 15 goals in six different games in 2009, had no such games in 2010.

Waiting in the playoffs was second-place Toronto ... again. Both teams had scored 34 goals in the three regular season matchups, and the Bandits had won two of the games in part because of Tavares' overtime goal. No one expected anything but a close game, which is why the start was so surprising.

After 20 minutes of play, the Bandits were leading, 6-0. Bucktooth and Accursi had two goals each, and Thompson was stopping everything thrown at him. The out-of-town scoreboard showed Boston leading Orlando, and it was possible to dream about home-field advantage in a week, followed by a championship game appearance in ...

The dream promptly ended, and the nightmare began. The Rock slowly but steadily started to climb back into the game. The Bandits had a 7-4 lead at the half and a 9-8 margin after three quarters, as the momentum kept shifting toward Toronto.

With about five and one-half minutes, Stephan Leblanc (five goals) gave the Rock its first lead of the game. Colin Doyle got his fourth 29 seconds later, and Toronto killed off the rest of the game to advance to the East final -- where it beat Orlando but lost to Washington in the NLL final.

"Really disappointing," said Accursi, who had six goals, one away from Steenhuis' team playoff record, about the season's conclusion.

Counting the regular season and playoffs, the Bandits lost more games than they won (8-9) -- the first time that had happened since 1999. It felt like another lively offseason was in the offing in Buffalo.

The 2008-09 Season

A team that is coming off a championship season doesn't have much need to change the formula. So the Buffalo Bandits came close to standing relatively still entering the 2009 season. 

The comings and goings of franchises, as usual, did have an effect on the roster. Arizona opted to go out of business rather than play in 2009. Its players, who had been subject to one dispersal draft before the 2008 season only to have their rights revert after the season, went through another such draft in June. The Bandits took Greg Hinman. In July, the Bandits lost Kyle Laverty to Boston in the expansion draft. 

Then in mid-December, Chicago announced it would not be ready to play in the 2009 season. Calgary took Tom Montour from the Shamrox in the dispersal draft, and then quickly sent him to the Bandits for a 2010 first-round draft choice. "I found out the team was folding when I got an e-mail two days before it was announced. It was pretty crazy," Montour said. Buffalo grabbed Cody Jacobs in the expansion draft. 

Once the season got going, the Bandits looks as if they were going to blow the league down. They beat Philadelphia, 15-11, on banner-raising night at home before 18,690. Mark Steenhuis had four goals and four assists. Here's what the raising looked like from the stands:

  

The pregame ceremony also included a well-deserved tribute to Buffalo News writer Tom Borrelli, who died in a freak accident while covering a high school football game in November. Outside of the Kilgour brothers and John Tavares, Borrelli may have done more than anyone in Western New York to grow the sport. His excellent work in covering the team from 1992 to 2008 gave the team legitimacy in the community. 

"Tom is going to be tremendously missed by this organization, and by me personally and my brother personally," Darris Kilgour said. 

A week later, a trip to Toronto proved Buffalo could win a defensive struggle, taking an 8-6 game. Tavares and Steenhuis scored in the fourth quarter to break a 6-6 tie. 

On January 16, Rochester came to town without its starting goalie, Pat O'Toole. By the second half, the Knighthawks couldn't keep up with the Bandits and essentially stopped trying to do so. The Bandits recorded a 23-6 victory that wasn't as close if the store indicates. Steenhuis had seven goals and five assists, while Roger Vyse had five goals. The Bandits scored three short-handed goals within eight minutes. 

"If they aren't going to play, it's on them," Kilgour said. "We're not running up the score at all. If they don't want 23 goals on them, they have to show a little effort." 

The Bandits hit the road on a three-game trip from there. They beat Minnesota, 10-9, and Edmonton, 13-8. They lost in Philadelphia, 13-11, to spoil thoughts of an undefeated season. 

Still, Buffalo roared through the end of the first half of the season. The Bandits thumped Toronto, 25-10, on Feb. 14. Steenhuis set league records with 13 assists and 17 points. 

"He's got a great shot and he's strong on his feet. That's a good start," said Roger Vyse, who had six goals, about Steenhuis. "He uses the rest of us really well out there, and it's good when we can help him."

Six days later in Toronto, Buffalo spotted the Rock a big lead, and came charging back in the second half. Steenhuis (who had a team record eight goals) tied the game with 38 seconds left in regulation, scored the game-winning goal 46 seconds into overtime for a 17-16 win. The Bandits were 7-1 at the midway point, and looked like the class of the league. They were even getting Pat McCready back from a major shoulder injury that cost him the first half of the season. 

But there was one catch, even if no one really knew it yet. They hadn't played anybody. Only one game in the first half was against a 2009 playoff team, and Rochester was not at full strength. 

The second half of the season started with a home against Minnesota, and the Bandits blew a lead and dropped a 16-15 decision. "It was awful -- a disappointing loss," Tavares said. A week later after the All-Star break, Buffalo lost a 15-14 overtime decision in Rochester. 

The Bandits played well in a 14-4 win over Portland at home, but lost, 11-9, to New York. "They outgoaltended us," Darris Kilgour said about the Titans. "I thought we outplayed them, outshot them (59-40). I thought Mikey [Thompson] let in some easy ones. I'm not too upset. I think if we had shot better, we'd have won the game." 

They rebounded with a pair of wins, one at Boston and another against Rochester on a brilliant performance by goalie Ken Montour (52 saves). 

"My defense was great in front of me," Montour said. "They forced them to shoot from way outside. I've been struggling with rebounds lately, and the defense picked me up." 

 

But Buffalo lost two straight to finish the regular season. The final game against the Blazers was particularly disheartening. Boston came back from a 10-5 deficit in the third quarter to win, 13-12, in overtime. The loss cost the Bandits first place in the East, losing that edge to New York in a tiebreaker.

"I'm very, very, very, very disappointed the way we played -- the amount of energy we put out. It was disappointing to say the least," Kilgour said. 

Steenhuis and Tavares tied for the league lead in goals with 51, and Ken Montour had the league's lowest goals-against average (9.57). Montour and Billy Dee Smith were named to the first team all-pro squad, while Steenhuis and Tavares were second-teamers. The team also set a league attendance record, averaging more than 17,000 in each of the eight home games. 

Buffalo had its hands full in the first-round playoff game at home with Boston, but the Bandits figured out a way to take an 11-8 decision. Tavares and Steenhuis took control in the fourth quarter to break open a tight end.  

That set up another East final against New York, and this one would not be in the friendly confines of HSBC Arena. In fact, the game was set for the Continental Arena in Newark, N.J., where the Titans had played half of their 2009 games. Interest was not at a fever pitch; fans could simply say "Newark" at the box office the night of the game and get a general admission ticket (and the whole building was general admission) for $5. Bandits fans made the drive in large numbers, and they may have outnumbered their Titans' counterparts. They certainly outshouted them before the game. 

What those fans saw was a stinker of a contest, particularly from the Bandits' standpoint. Very little happened in the first half, prompting one media member to ask, "Aren't the games usually better than this?" 

However, the game slowly turned in New York's direction. Casey Powell had two goals and five assists for the Titans, who went on to a 9-3 win. It was a Buffalo team record for fewest goals in a playoff game, and just missed a league record. Steenhuis and Tavares were blanked for only the second time in 2009. 

"You're not going to win when you score only three goals," Kilgour said. 

After the game, the 40-year-old Tavares was talking about retirement, probably out of frustration, coach/general manager Kilgour was wondering if it was time to give up one of his jobs, Rich Kilgour was ready to retire and become a college coach, and no one was speaking of standing pat in the coming offseason.

The 2007-08 Season

If the Buffalo Bandits were going to figure out a way to get to the top of the National Lacrosse League standings, some new faces were needed. Coach Darris Kilgour thought he knew who one of them was.

Therefore, he completed a three-way trade in July of 2007 that changed the face of his team. The object of Buffalo's affections was forward Sean Greenhalgh, a top scorer. Calgary sent defenseman Taylor Wray to Philadelphia, and a first- (2007) and second-round (2008) draft pick to Buffalo. The Bandits sent goalie Steve Dietrich and All-Star defenseman Kyle Couling to Calgary, and forward Jason Crosbie and other considerations to Philadelphia. Greenhalgh went to Buffalo from Philadelphia, while the Wings sent Ian Llord to Calgary.

Giving up Dietrich, a proven top goalie, was a gamble, but he had battled injury problems and Mike Thompson was thought to be ready to take the next step up. Greenhalgh had led the Wings in scoring in the previous two seasons.

"That group had been together four or five years and we had a couple kicks at the can but didn't get it done," captain Rich Kilgour said. "It's the same in any sport. If you're not getting better you're geting worse."

The Bandits suffered through another death of a part of their past that same month. Bob "Buff" McCready died at the age of 67. McCready was the team's first head coach, but was replaced, in a manner of speaking, by Les Bartley after the third game of the 1992 season. McCready is a member of the Ontario and Canadian Lacrosse Halls of Fame.

Concerning the league, the Boston Blazers jumped through all sorts of hoops in the offseason. The Blazers were introduced as an expansion team for 2008, and went through the process of an expansion draft on July 30. Buffalo lost forward Brenden Thenhaus to the Blazers in the procedure.

The Bandits went back to work on their roster at draft time in September. Llord turned up in a Buffalo uniform after a first- and second-round pick were sent to Calgary for Llord and a third-rounder. Minnesota sent the rights to Brandon Swamp for a 2008 first-round pick. Goalie Ken Montour came over from Philadelphia for a third-round choice. The Bandits then completed four other deals, all involving swaps of draft choices either in 2007 or 2008.

For a while in October, all of that work to revamp the roster looked like it would be for naught. The league and its players couldn't get together on a collective bargaining agreement, and the NLL even announced on Oct. 16 that it had cancelled the season. Nine days later, though, the season was saved through some after-the-last-second negotiations. Boston opted to wait another year to start operations, and Arizona decided to not play in 2008 either.

The dispersal draft of the players on the two teams was held on November 6. The Bandits rolled the dice by taking Arizona's Craig Conn, who had an injured knee and didn't figure to play much if at all in 2008. What's more, if Arizona returned to the league for 2009, Conn's rights would go right back to the Desert. Brian Croswell and Joe Smith joined the Bandits in later rounds.

Could we play lacrosse now? Most could. But Greenhalgh blew out his knee during a workout before Christmas, and would miss the entire 2008 season.

"That was pretty disappointing, to say the least," Kilgour said. "He's somebody I had really coveted. I'd made a move to go get him and he'd looked excellent. And now it's not going to work out."

That season began on January 11, as the Bandits played the Rochester Knighthawks on consecutive nights. Buffalo opened with a 12-9 loss, and Kilgour split the goaltending duties between Ken Montour and Mike Thompson. We'd see plenty of that in the season to come.

"We were disorganized, we had bad passing and the power play was horrible," John Tavares said about the game.

The Bandits rebounded the next night to win in Rochester to snap the Knighthawks' 16-game winning streak. However, they got off to another relatively slow start -- something that had haunted them in the past two seasons. One of the few early highlights came when Tavares scored his 597th career goal against New York, breaking Gary Gait's league record.

"He scores quality and quantity," said Rich Kilgour, a teammate from Day One. "Obviously he's the greatest of all time, there's no debating that. He's the best all-around lacrosse player that has ever strapped it up in this league. He deserves it."

Buffalo dropped overtime decisions in Philadelphia on January 26 and in New York on February 10. That made it 10 losses in 11 games with extra time, all away from home. When the Bandits lost in Toronto on February 15, they were 3-4 and in a bit of trouble in the divisional race. Injuries were part of the problem. Brett Bucktooth was in the midst of missing most of the regular season with a hip injury, while Roger Vyse and Kevin Dostie missed a few games as well.

But Buffalo got better from that point on. The Bandits got a big 16-14 win from undefeated Minnesota on February 16, as Cory Bomberry and Mark Steenhuis scored in the final three minutes.

"Given the circumstances, that was an absolutely huge win that we had to have against a really good team playing at its best," Darris Kilgour said.

The game started a four-game win streak, including victories over Chicago, undefeated Philadelphia and Minnesota again. That put the team's record at 7-4. It hit a small bump in the road with losses to Toronto and Rochester. In-between the two losses, the Bandits completed a major trade. They brought Mike Accursi back to Buffalo in exchange for Dan Teat, a second-rounder in 2008 and a first-rounder in 2009.

The 13-9 loss to Toronto on March 23 was a damaging one. After splitting games with Colorado and Rochester, Buffalo faced two crucial games at the end of the season just to qualify for the postseason at least. The Bandits came through, beat Chicago (Accursi with four first-half goals) and Portland to finish at 10-6. Against the LumberJax, Tavares had three straight goals to break the game open.

"He's a legend, the ageless wonder," Steenhuis said. "It's amazing for us to see it and be a part of it."

That was a popular record, as three other teams in the division also ended at 10-6. When the accountants were done going over the tiebreakers, Buffalo had won the East and thus the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. No team in the West was better than 9-7.

Individually, Tavares finished with 87 points and Mark Steenhuis had 75. Both were named to the first all-pro team, and Steenhuis was picked as transition player of the year. Dostie was third on the team in goals with 22, while Delby Powless and Cory Bomberry had 55 points each. Thompson had a better won-loss record than Montour (5-1 to 4-5), but Montour had the better goals-against average (10.23 to 11.81).

The Bandits started the playoffs at home against Philadelphia on May 2. Accursi had four goals while Thompson was sharp in the net in a 14-12 victory. The Bandits scored three straight goals in the fourth quarter to gain breathing room.

"In the fourth quarter I think the boys just said, 'You know what, this is our season.' It really hit us in the face that this could be our last game if we don't straighten it out and get to work," Darris Kilgour said.

In the East final against New York on May 10, Steenhuis took over. He had seven goals, while Bucktooth and Dostie had three each and Tavares had two goals and 10 assists. That was more than enough in a 19-12 win.

"It was magical just watching [Steenhuis} shoot the ball so effortlessly," Bucktooth said. "When a guy is hot like that, just get him the ball and let him take care of business."

Here is a highlight from that game:



Over in the West, Portland had overcome a poor regular season and stunned everyone by advancing to the May 17 final. You'd think the Bandits would have an easy time with a team that had gone 6-10 in the regular season. But the LumberJax proved to be a handful.

The game went back and forth throughout the night, in part because the Bandits lost Chris White to a injury early in the contest. Steenhuis had a huge game with five goals, and Dostie added three more. Buffalo had the lead, 14-13, in the final seconds when Thompson made one last huge save on Peter Jacobs from 15 feet away. The Bandits ran out the rest of the clock and started to celebrate their fourth championship and their first since 1996.

"They had a great opportunity and Mike stopped it," said Darris Kilgour. "That's the one everybody will remember but Mikey made just so many big saves for us all night long."

Here's the way the final seconds looked:



The Bandits had knocked on the door for a long time. Finally, they barged in.



(Photo of trophy presentation courtesy of bandits.com)

The 2006-07 Season

The Buffalo Bandits obviously didn't need to change too much as the 2007 season approached. No one suggested that it was time to tear down the walls; a simple rearranging of the furniture would be fine.

That started in June when A.J. Shannon was sent to Edmonton. Buffalo received a first-round draft pick for 2006, the third overall. The Rush picked up a first-rounder in 2007. The Bandits also acquired Kevin Dostie from Calgary for former first-rounder Jeff Shattler and a second-round pick in 2007.

Meanwhile, the National Lacrosse League's expansion plans for 2007 were no secret. As early as February, it was reported that Chicago and New York were coming to the league. The Chicago team eventually would be known as the Shamrox. New York didn't have a name in July when the expansion draft was held for the two teams. Buffalo lost Bryan Kazarian and Jon Harasym to Chicago.

In September, Buffalo took time out to honor two of its own. The League announced its selections for its Hall of Fame. Darris Kilgour, the coach and general manager of the Bandits, wasn't a big surprise, having been around the NLL in one capacity for another since Day One.

"I had a relatively short career so I really didn't think I had that great a chance," Kilgour said. "Plus a lot of my career was spent in the penalty box so I didn't know how that would figure into it."

Bufflao News' lacrosse writer Tom Borrelli was also included on the list. Borrelli had covered the team since 1993. In 2005, the league had named its writer of the year award after him. The pair was honored in Philadelphia before a Bandits-Wings game in February.

In September's draft, San Jose had the first two picks and chose Ryna Benesch and Kyle Sorensen. The Bandits went third and picked Brett Bucktooth of Syracuse University, who would fit in quickly. Buffalo made one other addition for the season, making original coach Bob "Buff" McCready its goaltending coach.

The games started on December 30, when the Bandits lost to Portland, 11-10 in overtime. It was part of a slow start for Buffalo, perhaps because goalie Steve Dietrich was out with a knee injury. Mike Thompson, who had been signed as a free agent and who hadn't played in the NLL since 2001, started the first five games -- including the home opener that drew a sellout of 18,690 on Jan. 12. One of the highlights of the early going came when John Tavares had a career-best 13 points (10 assists) in a 22-13 win over Minnesota.

Dietrich finally saw action on Feb. 2, a home loss to Toronto, in a game that left Buffalo's Tavares fuming.

"We were already short and they were calling very mediocre penalties," said Tavares, who had two goals and three assists. "It's very frustrating playing catch-up all night. It's demoralizing. I feel sorry for the 13,000 fans that were here. Every time we touched somebody we got a penalty. It got to be ridiculous."

Dietrich started the next night in Toronto and lost that one. That put the Bandits' record at 2-4, but the team came around after that.

"These last two games were more frustrating than even last year's championship," said Kilgour, referring to last May's penalty-filled 16-9 loss to Colorado. "We gave up the lead with absolutely selfish penalties over and over in the fourth quarter and we deserved every one of them. This weekend was absolutely unacceptable. I'm disgusted with my team right now."

Rebounding smartly, Buffalo ran off eight straight wins to move to 10-4. It was the second-longest win streak in team history. The Bandits even added some reinforcements along the way by giving up a first-round pick to Toronto for Phil Sanderson. The hot streak put the Bandits solidly in playoff position, with a chance to tie for the division in a home-and-home series with Rochester to close the regular season.

"When were at 2-4 we realized if we wanted any chance for first we were basically going to have to win out," said Kyle Laverty, one of the Bandits' best backliners. "We're building every game, getting better. We're on a roll at the right time."

That roll came to an end against Rochester. The Knighthawks took a 14-10 win in the opener of the series in Buffalo. Dietrich hurt his knee in that game.

"My knee just buckled on me, they don't know what's wrong with it," said Dietrich. "They don't think it's anything structural. The kneecap may have dislocated and then popped itself back into place. There's not a lot of pain right now, so that's a good sign."

The next night at home with nothing at stake they had an easier time, winning by 14-8. Rochester finished 14-2, the best record in the league, while the Bandits were 10-6.

Tavares was picked for his 15th straight All-Pro team after a 103-point season, Dostie was second on the team in goals with 29. Bucktooth chipped in with 26 points.

Buffalo drew Minnesota in the first-round playoff game on April 22. John Tavares had three goals and was the game MVP as the Bandits advanced with a 14-8 victory. Jason Crosbie had the killer goal of the night that put Buffalo up, 12-8.

"You don't really plan it, that stuff just kind of happens when you take a chance," said Crosbie. "I shoot a lot of underhanded stuff. I was looking for something knee-high, it just went under his stick. When I saw that red [light] go off, I was really pumped. That was probably a pretty big goal."

Meanwhile, goalie Thompson was sharp in the nets as a sub for the injured Dietrich.

"Throughout the season our confidence has spilled out onto me," said Thompson, who made 38 saves and blanked the Swarm the entire second half. "There wasn't any problem with my confidence. A couple of [the first four scores] were squeakers that I got a piece of. I just tried to calm myself down a little bit, it being my first playoff game. In the second half, everybody settled down."

Rochester and its 13-game win streak were waiting in the semifinal on April 27. Still, Buffalo seemed to have things in control in the fourth quarter as it had a three-goal lead in the fourth quarter.

Oops. The Knighthawks rallied for a 14-13 overtime win. Mike Accursi was the MVP for Rochester, while John Grant had the game-winning goal 26 seconds into the extra session. He beat Thompson, who had a remarkable 52 saves.

"Throughout the game he [Grant] had a tendency to go the other way," said Thompson, who allowed only two total goals in the middle quarters when the Bandits forged their lead. "He came like a twister. He looks like he's shooting short [side] but he goes long to the far side. I thought I had it. It pinched between the ground and my leg but it squeezed through there. I didn't even see it go in."

The Knighthawks were supposed to host the championship game, but the circus was in town ... literally. The NLL Board of Governors voted to move the game to Arizona, and the unfazed Knighthawks beat Arizona there, 13-11, to win the title.

The crowds in Buffalo had returned, as every game attracted at least 12,000 fans and the average attendance was a shade over 15,000. Now the Bandits had to find away to reward that loyalty.

The 2005-06 Season

The offseason got off to a sad beginning for the Buffalo Bandits and fans of indoor lacrosse everywhere. Les Bartley, who coached the Bandits to three championships before moving to the Ontario franchise, lost his fight with cancer at the age of 51. Bartley won four championships for the Toronto Rock (1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003), meaning that he had won seven titles in 10 years. Bartley had to step down from his post in the fall of 2003, but still worked with the league. Bartley's death came a day after Toronto defeated Arizona for the 2005 championship.

"Les was a great coach and great person and it's tough to know he's gone," Bandits forward John Tavares said. "He wasn't on the bench (for the last two years), so we kind of got used to him not being there. But now he's gone completely. Not just him, but his wife (Gloria), his kids (Matt and Laura).

"So that whole family has kind of been taken away from the game. When I think of the Toronto Rock, I definitely think of Les Bartley. He's going to be deeply missed by so many people."

May was a busy month for the National Lacrosse League. Edmonton came into the league on May 5, technically taking over the dormant Ottawa franchise. Portland became team number 12 a week later. But the growth stopped in June, as Anaheim gave up after two years in Anaheim.

In July, the Bandits lost Mike Hominuck as the first pick of the expansion draft to Portland; Tom Montour followed in the second round. Then came the Bandits' usual big trades. Cory Bomberry, taken by Edmonton in the expansion draft, came to Buffalo for a third-round pick. Then Lindsay Plunkett and Troy Bonterre were acquired from Arizona for Jason Crosie and a first-round pick in the dispersal draft. The Bandits also flip-flopped first-round picks in the transaction.

When the entry draft arrived on August 29, the Bandits took Jeff Shatler in the first round, and Roger Vyse with the first pick in the second round. Ian Lloyd and Kyle Schmelze came in later rounds, making it one of the deepest drafts in Bandits' history.

Buffalo also made a change in its front office. Kurt Silcott left the team's post as general manager after seven years to take the same job in Calgary, and coach Darris Kilgour added the GM's duties.

"I knew the day would come that I'd finally be leaving Buffalo," said Silcott. "I saw Bob Hamley make his move, I watched (Colorado GM) Steve Govett go (from Washington to Denver) and I knew that someday, going to a new city and a new lifestyle, would be right for me."

With that out of the way, the Bandits were off on another solid season. They couldn't have asked for a better start. Buffalo had a home-and-home series with Toronto, and won both ends, 13-11 and 13-10. In the first game, Mark Steenhuis had five goals and four assists.

The momentum was stopped by an 11-10 overtime loss in Rochester -- "It's on all of us tonight, myself included, for taking dumb penalties," said Bandits captain Rich Kilgour -- and the team drifted for the next several weeks. Buffalo lost four of six games in all, placing its record at 4-4 at the midpoint of the season.

One of the losses spoiled a momentus moment. Tavares broke Gary Gait's record for career points by getting No. 1,092. It came as an assist on a second-period goal by Steenhuis.

"It's something I can look back on when I'm retired and be proud of and being spoken in the same breath as Gary Gait," Tavares said. "Gary Gait's the all-time best player in the league, the all-time best player in lacrosse ever. To be compared to Gary, it's a great accomplishment for myself."

By the way, Tavares didn't have time to celebrate the win. He had to drive back to Toronto quickly, as his wife gave birth to a son the next day.

After that skid, an overtime win over Rochester by a 14-13 score -- Kim Squire, a free-agent signee, had the game-winner -- turned the season around. Squire was certainly stunned to score.

"I think they must have thought, 'This dude, he's washed up,' " said Squire, whose goal gave Buffalo its only lead of the night. "They kept backing up and backing up, giving me a lot of room. All of a sudden there was all this room so I moved in, had the shot and took advantage of it."

Buffalo beat Minnesota and Rochester to take control of the division. Steenhuis tied a team record in the win over the Knighthawks with seven goals, including six on his first six shots.

"I felt I owed it to the guys on the team because I hadn't been playing up to my potential," said Steenhuis.

Wins over San Jose, Arizona, Colorado and Philadelphia followed down the stretch. The burst wrapped up the division title and the number one seed in the playoffs. Dan Teat had 34 points in his last seven games at that point after scoring 17 in the first eight.

"That's about the same time our offense sat down together and decided we were going to step it up," said Dan Teat. "[The first eight games] I was still getting the chances so I was more upbeat than if I hadn't been getting them."

The win turned the season finale, a loss to Philadelphia, into a meaningless result. An 11-5 record was two games better than Rochester's 9-7 mark.

Tavares was down to "only" 85 points and "only" made second-team All-Pro, but Mark Steenhuis led the team in goals with 34. Teat chipped in 27 goals, and Cory Bomberry had 21. Steve Dietrich had another fine season in goal, going 10-4 with a GAA of 9.97 as he was named goaltender of the year. Later, he became the first goalie in league history to be named Most Valuable Player.

"He's the backbone of our defense," said Bandits assistant coach Troy Cordingley, who commands a defense that led the league and set a franchise record with a 10.43 goals against average. "When things do break down, Chugger [Dietrich] is always there to stuff it up."

The playoffs started on April 23, and the Bandits had a major scare in the opener. Buffalo was tied with Minnesota, 10-10, with a little more than three minutes left when Steenhuis scored. That one held up for the 11-10 win.

"You have to give those guys credit," said Steenhuis, who had two goals and an assist, about Minnesota. "There was absolutely no quit in them. They just kept coming and coming and coming."

Next up was Rochester, six days later. The Knighthawks had never been easy for the Bandits traditionally, but Buffalo handled them, 15-10, this time.

Dietrich played his best game of the season for Buffalo, stopping 46 of 56 shots. Cory Bomberry, Delby Powless and rookie Roger Vyse, all products of the Six Nations Chiefs program, gave the Bandits' offense a boost by combining for five goals and 17 assists.

"We have played together a long time," said Bomberry, who had two goals and seven assists, and is Vyse's uncle. "We know each other's tendencies and we were really moving the ball well."

That set up the championship game between Buffalo and Colorado on May 13. For the first time since 1997, the final would be in Buffalo. And the Bandits had big hopes of winning their first championship since 1996.

Instead, Buffalo picked the exact wrong time to play a stinker of a game. A crowd of 16,104 watched in disbelief as the Bandits were never in the game, losing to the Mammoth, 16-9. Colorado led by 7-2 at the half and led by 9-2 early in the third quarter. Buffalo rallied a bit, but couldn't come close to making it interesting. 

 

"We just dug too big a hole," said Bandits defenseman and assistant captain Kyle Couling. "We tried to climb out but you just can't afford to take a quarter off in a championship game."

Only Troy Bonterre had more than one goal for Buffalo, and he had never scored before in his five-year career. John Tavares popped a hamstring muscle in the first half and wasn't a factor. Bandits fans spent the end of the game cheering for the Sabres long-distance during the hockey team's playoff game in Ottawa.

"It felt like a hammer," said Bandits captain Rich Kilgour. "We could do no right. Maybe we were just trying too hard, maybe everyone was trying to be a hero."

That fourth title was getting more elusive by the year.