The Vancouver Warriors are not ready to get off the playoff train just yet. After a 15-10 quarterfinal win in their first round matchup against the Rochester Knighthawks for their seventh straight win, No. 4 Vancouver is saddling up for their first franchise semifinal series against the No. 1 Buffalo Bandits.
In last week’s quarterfinal matchup, the Warriors‘ Keegan Bal tallied 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his first ever playoff appearance, made possible by goalkeeper Christian Del Bianco’s stalwart performance in net, stopping 48 of Rochester’s 58 shots on goal, all while picking up two assists of his own to get transition Owen Grant on the board and Bal his fifth of the night.
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“If you asked most people at the start of the year if they wanted to be in the semifinals, I’m sure [they would] take it,” said Del Bianco. “Whether that’s going to the number one ranked team in Buffalo or another team, I think either way you’d be excited about the opportunity.”
After being acquired in what could be considered the most monumental trade in League history, Del Bianco has made himself indispensable to the Warriors’ defensive line, stopping 238 shots and an 82% save percentage in the regular season in just six short games between the pipes.
During his postgame interview, Vancouver general manager and head coach Curt Malawsky credited Del Bianco as their go-to guy and last line of defense in their aggressive, disciplined backend: “They soaked a lot of shots and when they got by us, Delbs was there.” Despite his clear success and rocketing Rogers Arena celebrity status, Del Bianco redirected acclaim to the Warriors’ disciplined defensive line, as well as the team’s depth of character and ability. “They’ve played that style all year and there’s a lot of different guys that have different skill sets and different abilities to match up against players,” said Del Bianco. “But I think the overall equation and success is just between coaching and veteran players being able to be malleable and adjust on the fly and do all these things.”
Being added in so late in the season allowed Del Bianco the opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the Vancouver defense as a spectator, giving him a unique perspective and mindset when initially meshing with his new defense. “I would like to say that I’m a part of it, but they’ve been playing that solid defense the entire season,” he joked.
“Being able to watch the start of the year, you get to see that and then you get to play with the guys and some of the [players] that you don’t have the pre-existing experience with and you start to further respect how good some of them actually are.”
But as the weekend inches closer, preparations need to be made on and off the turf. Malawsky admitted during last weekend’s postgame that he felt the Warriors got away from their team identity for a moment against Rochester due to emotions running high on both teams. Del Bianco agreed with his coach but saw the momentary breakdown as an opportunity to further solidify the team’s presence in the postseason by redirecting that intensity towards the Bandits. “It’s an emotional game, and I think emotion isn’t a bad thing; it’s how you use the motion,” Del Bianco explained. “Is the emotion drawing you away from what you need to do, or are you using the motion to fuel you as energy?”
Buffalo, a notoriously high-energy playoff team, is expected to bring the same level of intensity to both their physical play and the mental game. Del Bianco emphasized the need for mental toughness and physical discipline in their weekend preparations, “We’re not expecting to go in there and be robots, but we do expect to control our emotions and use them on our terms.”
Vancouver last tangled with Buffalo in Week 18 of the regular season, where a Herculean 17-point effort from Adam Charalambides and Bal, as well Del Bianco’s 40 stopped shots led the Warriors to a 13-12 win against the Bandits. Their monumental win over Buffalo marked their third straight victory since acquiring Del Bianco from the Roughnecks’ locker room couch.
40 saves for Christian Del Bianco and the @VanWarriors‘ defense, none bigger than in the dying seconds of this one!
Vancouver takes it 13-12 over Buffalo. pic.twitter.com/gEQaIr1SQq
— NLL (@NLL) March 30, 2025
Buffalo finished the regular season 13-5 after a Week 21 loss to the recently eliminated Georgia Swarm (fell to the Saskatchewan Rush 13-9 in the quarterfinal round), and blew into the semifinals after the San Diego Seals held them to five goals in their quarterfinal bout last weekend. The Bandits’ first-round victory was the lowest-scoring playoff game in League history, as well as the lowest-scoring Bandits showing thus far this season.
Headed into a pivotal semifinal matchup, it’s easy to convince oneself that the two-time champs might not be fighting on all cylinders, but as Del Bianco explained, history and experience tell a different story. The Bandits have appeared in the NLL Cup Finals for the last four seasons, taking the last two home to KeyBank Center against the Colorado Mammoth in 2023 and the Albany Firewolves in 2024. “It’s business as usual… they have that experience and depth,” said Del Bianco. “They’re able to bounce back and they know what it takes to win, so I wouldn’t expect for them to be off their game.”
Heading into their matchup with Rochester, Malawsky and Del Bianco both pointed out the Knighthawks’ high-power transition play and success at the faceoff dot as two major areas of concern in their quarterfinal film notes. Buffalo, as Del Bianco explained, are not so easy to boil down. “You have to respect them at all levels and all facets of the game; there’s a reason why they’re so good,” Del Bianco admitted. “Everyone can hurt you, there’s so many weapons.” The Bandits boast an active roster with extreme depth on both sides of the ball, not to mention two MVP nominees, forwards Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith, and a goalkeeper largely respected by players and fans as the best to step between the pipes, Matt Vinc (730 regular season saves, 48 in the playoffs), “All of them are a threat, and that’s something that offers some challenges for teams, but I think it also gives you an opportunity to play them honest.”
“In the playoffs, rent’s due every week, so there’s no time to lay off the pedal. I don’t think that a sense of security is a bad thing, but we’re here to play and we need to play desperate,” said Del Bianco. “We need to play with that sense of urgency, and I think everything we do throughout the week is building up to that.”
