Christian Del Bianco slams door, Vancouver Warriors surprise Buffalo Bandits to strengthen playoff bid

The Vancouver Warriors gave their chances of making the National Lacrosse League playoffs for a second time in 11 seasons a significant boost Saturday.

The Warriors (8-7) downed the first-place Buffalo Bandits (11-4) by a 13-12 count before a crowd of over 19,000 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

Recent trade pick-up Christian Del Bianco made 40 saves in the Vancouver net, while Keegan Bal put up four goals and 10 points. Bal bagged the eventual winner with 4:01 to go, wrapping up a four-goal Vancouver run.

Buffalo cut the margin to 13-12 when Ian MacKay solved Del Bianco with 3:37 to go, but they couldn’t come any closer. The Bandits had a power play and their goalie on the bench in favour of any extra attacker in the final minute of the game, but were foiled on four glorious chances by Del Bianco.

It was the former league most valuable player’s third start in the Vancouver crease after coming over from the Calgary Roughnecks in a trade deadline deal. Del Bianco had been holding out from Calgary. 

“I wish he was still sitting on his couch,” MacKay was quoted as saying in a story on the Bandits web site. 

“It’s good to see him back in the league. A player of his caliber, you don’t want situations like (him holding out) happening. Kudos to Vancouver for making that move and being able to get him.”

Vancouver has a single playoff game to show for the past 10 seasons, with a loss in the single-elimination quarterfinals in 2017. They finished 8-10 last year, which is their best mark so far since the Vancouver Canucks bought the team in 2018 and moved them from the Langley Events Centre to Rogers Arena.

The top eight teams in the 14-team National Lacrosse League make the playoffs and Vancouver currently sits in seventh spot. The Warriors have a home game against the Albany FireWolves (6-9) next Friday and then a road game versus the Toronto Rock (5-9) on April 11 and and a home game with the Philadelphia Wings (5-10) on April 19 remaining on their schedule.

Last year, the eighth and final qualifier had an 8-10 regular season record. In 2023, it was 9-9 for the last team to advance to the playoffs.

The Warriors have the head-to-head tiebreakers with the eighth-place Georgia Swarm (7-7), ninth-place Roughnecks (7-8), and 10th-place Ottawa Black Bears (7-8).

(Photo of Vancouver Warriors coach Curt Malawsky courtesy of the Warriors.)