2016 Buffalo Bandits season

The Buffalo Bandits are a lacrosse team based in Buffalo, New York playing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The 2016 season was their twenty-fifth season in the NLL.

2016 Buffalo Bandits
East Division Champions
League	NLL
Division	1st East
2016 record	13-5
Home record	8-1
Road record	5-4
Goals for	251
Goals against	214
General Manager	Steve Dietrich
Coach	Troy Cordingley
Captain	Billy Dee Smith
Arena	First Niagara Center
Team leaders
Goals	Dhane Smith (72)
Assists	Dhane Smith (65)
Points	Dhane Smith (137)
Penalties in minutes	Steve Priolo (61)
Loose Balls	Jay Thorimbert (129)
Wins	Anthony Cosmo (8)
Goals against average	Anthony Cosmo (11.73)
← 2015 season 2017 season →

The Bandits had their best season in years, finishing with a franchise-record 13 wins. The 13-5 record gave the team first place in the East Division and also clinched first seed for the playoffs.[1] The team only lost two games in a row once and finished the season winning 9 of their last 10 games.

Buffalo beat New England 2 games to 0 in the semifinals, but lost two close games to the Edmonton Rush in the Championship.

The team was led by Dhane Smith, who had one of the best offensive years in NLL history. Smith set new records for both goals in a season with 72 and points in a season with 137.

Regular season

Final standings

Reference: [2]

East Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Buffalo Bandits – xyz	18	13	5	.722	0.0	8–1	5–4	251	214	+37	13.94	11.89
2	New England Black Wolves – x	18	10	8	.556	3.0	6–3	4–5	229	212	+17	12.72	11.78
3	Georgia Swarm – x	18	8	10	.444	5.0	4–5	4–5	238	240	-2	13.22	13.33
4	Rochester Knighthawks	18	7	11	.389	6.0	3–6	4–5	200	215	-15	11.11	11.94
5	Toronto Rock	18	5	13	.278	8.0	4–5	1–8	190	224	-34	10.56	12.44

West Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Saskatchewan Rush – xy	18	13	5	.722	0.0	7–2	6–3	233	190	+43	12.94	10.56
2	Colorado Mammoth – x	18	12	6	.667	1.0	8–1	4–5	203	202	+1	11.28	11.22
3	Calgary Roughnecks – x	18	8	10	.444	5.0	5–4	3–6	216	216	0	12.00	12.00
4	Vancouver Stealth	18	5	13	.278	8.0	4–5	1–8	198	245	-47	11.00	13.61

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:[3]

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
1	January 9, 2016	Calgary Roughnecks	First Niagara Center	W 10–9		14,286	1–0
2	January 16, 2016	@ Colorado Mammoth	Pepsi Center	L 14–15	OT	14,125	1–1
3	January 23, 2016	Toronto Rock	First Niagara Center	W 12–6		13,359	2–1
4	January 30, 2016	@ New England Black Wolves	Mohegan Sun Arena	L 11–15		3,874	2–2
5	February 6, 2016	New England Black Wolves	First Niagara Center	W 12–10		13,556	3–2
6	February 14, 2016	@ Georgia Swarm	Infinite Energy Arena	W 21–14		4,971	4–2
7	February 19, 2016	@ Toronto Rock	Air Canada Centre	L 12–14		7,837	4–3
8	February 20, 2016	Georgia Swarm	First Niagara Center	L 15–19		14,515	4–4
9	February 26, 2016	@ Saskatchewan Rush	SaskTel Centre	W 19–18	OT	10,433	5–4
10	March 5, 2016	@ Vancouver Stealth	Langley Events Centre	W 13–8		3,382	6–4
11	March 11, 2016	Rochester Knighthawks	First Niagara Center	W 13–10		18,751	7–4
12	March 25, 2016	Vancouver Stealth	First Niagara Center	W 17–10		14,301	8–4
13	April 2, 2016	@ Georgia Swarm	Infinite Energy Arena	W 18–14		3,355	9–4
14	April 9, 2016	Rochester Knighthawks	First Niagara Center	W 14–12		17,397	10–4
15	April 15, 2016	@ Toronto Rock	Air Canada Centre	L 9–12		9,237	10–5
16	April 16, 2016	Toronto Rock	First Niagara Center	W 14–8		17,270	11–5
17	April 23, 2016	@ Rochester Knighthawks	Blue Cross Arena	W 15–13		10,716	12–5
18	April 30, 2016	New England Black Wolves	First Niagara Center	W 17–12		19,070	13–5

Playoffs

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
Eastern Final (Game 1)	May 16, 2016	@ New England Black Wolves	Mohegan Sun Arena	W 15–10		3,697	1–0
Eastern Final (Game 2)	May 21, 2016	New England Black Wolves	First Niagara Center	W 20–15		14,423	2–0
Finals Game 1	May 28, 2016	Saskatchewan Rush	First Niagara Center	L 9–11		12,692	2–1
Finals Game 2	June 4, 2016	@ Saskatchewan Rush	SaskTel Centre	L 10–11		15,182	2–2

Roster

2016 Buffalo Bandits roster
Active (21-man) roster				Inactive roster		Coaches
Goaltenders 44 Anthony Cosmo 65 Davide DiRuscio Defensemen 12 Mitch de Snoo 23 Steve Priolo (A)  3 Billy Dee Smith (C)  5 Adam Will		Forwards 17 Ryan Benesch 19 Chad Culp 21 Tyler Ferreira 93 Anthony Malcom 92 Dhane Smith  9 Mark Steenhuis 36 Daryl Veltman Transition 13 David Brock (A)  8 Kevin Brownell 66 Alex Kedoh Hill 24 Mitch Jones 75 Jay Thorimbert 22 Andrew Watt 20 Nick Weiss		Injured Reserve 15 Matthew Bennett 55 Mitch Wilde		Head Coach Troy Cordingley Assistant Coaches John Tavares Rich Kilgour Shawn Williams Dave Pym Rob Buchan Rusty Kruger Equipment Manager Ted Cordingley Legend * Suspended list (C) Captain (A) Alternate captain Roster updated 2016-01-04 NLL Transactions

Transactions

Trades

September 28, 2015	To Buffalo Bandits 55th overall selection, 2015 entry draft	To Saskatchewan Rush 6th round selection, 2018 entry draft

Entry Draft

The 2015 NLL Entry Draft took place on September 28, 2015.[4] The Bandits made the following selections:

Round	Overall	Player	College/Club
2	11	Anthony Malcom
3	27	Mike Triolo
4	36	Tim Edwards
6	55	Matt Francisco

See also

• 2016 NLL season

References

1. Hirschbeck, Zak. "Historic Night in Banditland Sees Bandits Clinch First Place in NLL With 12-7 Win Over New England". Bandits.com. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
2. "NLL Standings". NLL.com. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
3. "2015 schedule". Bandits.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
4. "2015 NLL Entry Draft Results". SwarmItUp.com. September 28, 2015. Retrieved November 14, 2015.