2006 Buffalo Bandits season

2006 Buffalo Bandits
East Division Champions
League	NLL
Division	1st East
2006 record	11-5
Home record	6-2
Road record	5-3
Goals for	193
Goals against	167
General Manager	Darris Kilgour
Coach	Darris Kilgour
Captain	Richie Kilgour
Alternate captains	John Tavares
Arena	HSBC Arena
Average attendance	11,176
Team leaders
Goals	Mark Steenhuis (34)
Assists	John Tavares (53)
Points	John Tavares (85)
Penalties in minutes	Chris White (51)
Loose Balls	Pat McCready (154)
Wins	Steve Dietrich (10)
Goals against average	Steve Dietrich (9.97)
← 2005 season 2007 season →

The Buffalo Bandits are a lacrosse team based in Buffalo, New York playing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The 2006 season was the 15th in franchise history.

The Bandits captured the Eastern division title by repeating their 11-5 record from 2005. They then spoiled the Minnesota Swarm's first ever playoff game by defeating them 11-10, and advanced to the championship game by beating Rochester 15-10. The Bandits hosted the Championship game for the first time since 1997, but lost to Gary Gait's Colorado Mammoth 16-9.

Goaltender Steve Dietrich made history twice, by being the first person to be named Goaltender of the Year in consecutive years (in fact, the first person to win the award twice), and also by being the first goaltender to be named NLL Most Valuable Player.

Regular season

Conference standings

Reference:

East Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Buffalo Bandits – xyz	16	11	5	.688	0.0	6–2	5–3	193	167	+26	12.06	10.44
2	Rochester Knighthawks – x	16	9	7	.562	2.0	6–2	3–5	196	180	+16	12.25	11.25
3	Toronto Rock – x	16	8	8	.500	3.0	5–3	3–5	182	179	+3	11.38	11.19
4	Minnesota Swarm – x	16	8	8	.500	3.0	3–5	5–3	158	171	−13	9.88	10.69
5	Philadelphia Wings	16	8	8	.500	3.0	5–3	3–5	184	184	−-0	11.50	11.50

West Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Portland LumberJax – xy	16	11	5	.688	0.0	5–3	6–2	188	177	+11	11.75	11.06
2	Colorado Mammoth – x	16	10	6	.625	1.0	6–2	4–4	200	172	+28	12.50	10.75
3	Calgary Roughnecks – x	16	9	7	.562	2.0	4–4	5–3	183	178	+5	11.44	11.12
4	Arizona Sting – x	16	8	8	.500	3.0	4–4	4–4	198	199	−1	12.38	12.44
5	San Jose Stealth	16	5	11	.312	6.0	3–5	2–6	151	174	−23	9.44	10.88
6	Edmonton Rush	16	1	15	.062	10.0	0–8	1–7	150	202	−52	9.38	12.62

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:

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
1	January 13, 2006	@ Toronto Rock	Air Canada Centre	W 13–11		15,104	1–0
2	January 21, 2006	Toronto Rock	HSBC Arena	W 13–10		13,072	2–0
3	January 28, 2006	@ Rochester Knighthawks	Blue Cross Arena	L 10–11	OT	11,121	2–1
4	February 10, 2006	Portland LumberJax	HSBC Arena	W 16–6		10,395	3–1
5	February 11, 2006	@ Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	Wachovia Center	L 9–10		11,207	3–2
6	February 18, 2006	Minnesota Swarm	HSBC Arena	W 14–9		12,458	4–2
7	March 4, 2006	Minnesota Swarm	HSBC Arena	L 8–11		10,961	4–3
8	March 11, 2006	Toronto Rock	HSBC Arena	L 8–10		14,064	4–4
9	March 18, 2006	@ Rochester Knighthawks	Blue Cross Arena	W 14–13		10,209	5–4
10	March 24, 2006	@ Minnesota Swarm	Xcel Energy Center	W 13–11		9,533	6–4
11	March 25, 2006	Rochester Knighthawks	HSBC Arena	W 18–13		13,722	7–4
12	March 31, 2006	@ San Jose Stealth	HP Pavilion at San Jose	W 11–9		5,143	8–4
13	April 1, 2006	@ Arizona Sting	Jobing.com Arena	W 13–10		6,759	9–4
14	April 8, 2006	Colorado Mammoth	HSBC Arena	W 14–12		11,895	10–4
15	April 14, 2006	Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	HSBC Arena	W 8–7		10,379	11–4
16	April 15, 2006	@ Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	Wachovia Center	L 11–14		12,796	11–5

Playoffs

Game log

Reference:

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
Division Semifinal	April 23, 2006	Minnesota Swarm	HSBC Arena	W 11–10		8,110	1–0
Division Final	April 29, 2006	Rochester Knighthawks	HSBC Arena	W 15–10		10,897	2–0
Championship Game	May 13, 2006	Colorado Mammoth	HSBC Arena	L 9–16		16,104	2–1

Player stats

Reference:

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	32	53	85	95	12
Mark Steenhuis	15	34	23	57	144	22
Dan Teat	15	27	29	56	50	10
Cory Bomberry	15	21	27	48	89	22
Delby Powless	15	12	33	45	64	10
Pat McCready	15	11	15	26	154	36
Kim Squire	12	13	10	23	43	12
A.J. Shannon	9	7	16	23	44	2
Lindsay Plunkett	7	9	9	18	21	4
Totals		287	480	402	1039	50

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
Steve Dietrich	16	812:34	10	4	135	.808	9.97
Ken Montour	7	116:48	1	1	25	.775	12.84
Ryan Avery	6	30:00	0	0	6	.800	12.00
Totals			11	5	167	.802	10.44

Awards

Player	Award
Steve Dietrich	NLL Most Valuable Player
Steve Dietrich	Goaltender of the Year
Steve Dietrich	First Team All-Pro
John Tavares	Second Team All-Pro
John Tavares	All-Stars
Steve Dietrich
Mark Steenhuis

Transactions

Trades

February 21, 2006	To Buffalo Bandits Ken Montour third round pick, 2007 entry draft	To Calgary Roughnecks first round pick, 2006 entry draft
February 21, 2006	To Buffalo Bandits first round pick, 2006 entry draft	To Calgary Roughnecks Ryan Avery
March 23, 2006	To Buffalo Bandits Jason Crosbie	To Arizona Sting Lindsay Plunkett fourth round pick, 2007 entry draft

Roster

Reference:

No. Position Player Goalie Avery, Ryan 72 Fwd Bomberry, Cory 2 Def Bonterre, Troy 27 Def Couling, Kyle 54 Fwd Crosbie, Jason 30 Goalie Dietrich, Steve Def Francey, Tyler 7 Fwd Harasym, Jon 5 Def Hill, Clay 97 Fwd Kazarian, Bryan 16 Def Kilgour, Rich 32 Def Langdale, Chris 17 Def Laverty, Kyle

No. Position Player 23 Def McCready, Pat 29 Goalie Montour, Ken Fwd Plunkett, Lindsay 99 Fwd Powless, Delby 12 Fwd Schmelzie, Kyle 8 Fwd Shannon, A.J. 77 Def Shattler, Jeff 3 Def Smith, Billy Dee 93 Fwd Squire, Kim 9 Fwd Steenhuis, Mark 11 Fwd Tavares, John 15 Fwd Teat, Dan 81 Fwd Vyse, Roger 6 Def White, Chris

See also

• 2006 NLL season