2008 Buffalo Bandits season

2008 Buffalo Bandits
Champion's Cup Champions
East Division Champions
League	NLL
Division	1st East
2008 record	10-6
Home record	7-2
Road record	3-4
Goals for	203
Goals against	174
General Manager	Darris Kilgour
Coach	Darris Kilgour
Captain	Rich Kilgour
Alternate captains	Pat McCready John Tavares
Arena	HSBC Arena
Average attendance	12,665
Team leaders
Goals	Mark Steenhuis (34)
Assists	John Tavares (58)
Points	John Tavares (87)
Penalties in minutes	Kyle Laverty (70)
Loose Balls	Pat McCready (121)
Wins	Mike Thompson (5)
Goals against average	Ken Montour (10.23)
← 2007 season 2009 season →

The Buffalo Bandits are a lacrosse team based in Buffalo, New York playing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The 2008 season was the franchise's 17th season.

The Bandits tied with Minnesota, New York, and Philadelphia with a 10-6 record but thanks to tiebreakers, clinched first place overall and home floor advantage throughout the playoffs. They beat the Philadelphia Wings 14-12 in the opening round of the playoffs, then made quick work of the New York Titans 19-12, before they beat the Portland LumberJax 14-13 to win their first championship since 1996.[1][2]

Regular season

Conference standings

Reference: [3]

East Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Buffalo Bandits – xyz	16	10	6	.625	0.0	7–2	3–4	203	174	+29	12.69	10.88
2	Minnesota Swarm – x	16	10	6	.625	0.0	6–2	4–4	199	196	+3	12.44	12.25
3	New York Titans – x	16	10	6	.625	0.0	5–1	5–5	197	186	+11	12.31	11.62
4	Philadelphia Wings – x	16	10	6	.625	0.0	7–1	3–5	225	220	+5	14.06	13.75
5	Rochester Knighthawks	16	8	8	.500	2.0	4–4	4–4	197	171	+26	12.31	10.69
6	Toronto Rock	16	7	9	.438	3.0	4–5	3–4	172	174	−2	10.75	10.88
7	Chicago Shamrox	16	6	10	.375	4.0	3–5	3–5	176	212	−36	11.00	13.25

West Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	San Jose Stealth – xy	16	9	7	.562	0.0	4–4	5–3	185	172	+13	11.56	10.75
2	Colorado Mammoth – x	16	9	7	.562	0.0	6–2	3–5	184	167	+17	11.50	10.44
3	Calgary Roughnecks – x	16	7	9	.438	2.0	5–3	2–6	183	178	+5	11.44	11.12
4	Portland LumberJax – x	16	6	10	.375	3.0	3–5	3–5	179	194	−15	11.19	12.12
5	Edmonton Rush	16	4	12	.250	5.0	3–5	1–7	141	197	−56	8.81	12.31

x: Clinched playoff berth; c: Clinched playoff berth by crossing over to another division; y: Clinched division; z: Clinched best regular season record; GP: Games Played
W: Wins; L: Losses; GB: Games back; PCT: Win percentage; Home: Record at Home; Road: Record on the Road; GF: Goals scored; GA: Goals allowed
Differential: Difference between goals scored and allowed; GF/GP: Average number of goals scored per game; GA/GP: Average number of goals allowed per game

Game log

Reference:[4]

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
1	January 11, 2008	Rochester Knighthawks	HSBC Arena	L 9–12		18,670	0–1
2	January 12, 2008	@ Rochester Knighthawks	Blue Cross Arena	W 14–9		10,939	1–1
3	January 19, 2008	New York Titans	HSBC Arena	W 17–13		11,878	2–1
4	January 26, 2008	@ Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	Wachovia Center	L 14–15	OT	10,542	2–2
5	February 8, 2008	@ Calgary Roughnecks	Pengrowth Saddledome	W 17–9		10,922	3–2
6	February 10, 2008	@ New York Titans	Madison Square Garden	L 9–10	OT	6,742	3–3
7	February 15, 2008	@ Toronto Rock	Air Canada Centre	L 8–11		14,611	3–4
8	February 16, 2008	Minnesota Swarm	HSBC Arena	W 16–14		14,446	4–4
9	February 24, 2008	@ Chicago Shamrox	Sears Centre	W 13–8		3,250	5–4
10	March 1, 2008	Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	HSBC Arena	W 21–12		13,720	6–4
11	March 8, 2008	Minnesota Swarm	HSBC Arena	W 11–7		12,313	7–4
12	March 22, 2008	Toronto Rock	HSBC Arena	L 9–13		15,230	7–5
13	April 5, 2008	Colorado Mammoth	HSBC Arena	W 12–11		16,905	8–5
14	April 12, 2008	@ Rochester Knighthawks	Blue Cross Arena	L 6–11		10,517	8–6
15	April 19, 2008	Chicago Shamrox	HSBC Arena	W 13–9		13,633	9–6
16	April 26, 2008	Portland LumberJax	HSBC Arena	W 14–10		18,325	10–6

Playoffs

Game log

Reference:[5]

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
Division Semifinal	May 2, 2008	Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	HSBC Arena	W 14–12		9,344	1–0
Division Final	May 10, 2008	New York Titans	HSBC Arena	W 19–12		11,012	2–0
Championship Game	May 17, 2008	Portland LumberJax	HSBC Arena	W 14–13		18,690	3–0

Player stats

Reference:[6]

Runners (Top 10)

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; LB = Loose Balls; PIM = Penalty Minutes

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	LB	PIM
John Tavares	16	29	58	87	91	23
Mark Steenhuis	15	34	41	75	121	27
Delby Powless	16	18	37	55	29	10
Cory Bomberry	16	17	38	55	59	29
Roger Vyse	14	21	27	48	48	4
Kevin Dostie	10	22	14	36	34	11
Dan Teat	12	11	23	34	38	2
Pat McCready	15	8	15	23	121	44
Ian Llord	15	5	12	17	71	26
Totals		316	519	478	1047	48

Goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; MIN = Minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; GA = Goals against; Sv% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Player	GP	MIN	W	L	GA	Sv%	GAA
Mike Thompson	14	421:36	5	1	83	.762	11.81
Ken Montour	14	480:45	4	5	82	.808	10.23
Daniel Sams	3	60:00	1	0	8	.882	8.00
Totals			10	6	174	.794	10.88

Awards

Player	Award
Mark Steenhuis	Transition Player of the Year
John Tavares	First Team All-Pro
Mark Steenhuis
Mark Steenhuis	Championship Game MVP
John Tavares	All-Stars
Mark Steenhuis
Chris White

Transactions

Trades

February 5, 2008[7]	To Buffalo Bandits Andrew Lazore Rusty Kruger	To Chicago Shamrox two second round picks, 2008 entry draft
March 25, 2008[8]	To Buffalo Bandits Mike Accursi	To Edmonton Rush Dan Teat second round pick, 2008 entry draft first round pick, 2009 entry draft

Roster

Reference:[9]

No. Position Player 44 Fwd Accursi, Mike 72 Fwd Bomberry, Cory 26 Fwd Bucktooth, Brett Fwd Conn, Craig ? Croswell, Brian 51 Fwd Dostie, Kevin Fwd Francis, Brandon Fwd Greenhalgh, Sean 5 Def Hill, Clay 16 Trans Kilgour, Rich 20 Fwd Kruger, Rusty ? Lalonde, Chris 17 Def Laverty, Kyle 4 Fwd Lazore, Andrew 2 Fwd Llord, Ian 10 Trans McCready, Pat 29 Goalie Montour, Ken

No. Position Player 99 Fwd Powless, Delby Def Ragnar, Pete Goalie Sams, Daniel 18 Def Sanderson, Phil 24 Def Schmelzle, Kyle 3 Def Smith, Billy Dee 14 Def Smith, Joe Def Sorci, Tony Trans Squire, Chad 9 Trans Steenhuis, Mark 12 Fwd Swamp, Brandon 11 Fwd Tavares, John Fwd Teat, Dan 66 Goalie Thompson, Mike Fwd Thorimbert, Jay 81 Fwd Vyse, Roger 6 Def White, Chris

See also

• 2008 NLL season

References

1. "Bandits Win Edge 2008 NLL Championship Game". NLL.com. May 17, 2008. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
2. The Bandits had won three MILL championships, but none since the MILL was reformed into the NLL in 1998.
3. "National Lacrosse League - 2008 Regular Season - Standings". NLL.com. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
4. "Buffalo Bandits – National Lacrosse League". NLL.com. Archived from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
5. "Buffalo Bandits – National Lacrosse League". NLL.com. Archived from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
6. "Buffalo Bandits - National Lacrosse League - team stats | Pointstreak Sports Technologies".
7. "Chicago Deals Lazore To Buffalo". NLL.com. February 5, 2008. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
8. "Buffalo Deals Teat & Picks for Accursi". NLL.com. March 25, 2008. Archived from the original on 28 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
9. "Buffalo Bandits - National Lacrosse League - team roster | Pointstreak Sports Technologies".