It’s called “Banditland,” and on Friday night the San Diego Seals will be right in the middle of it for a National Lacrosse League single-elimination quarterfinal matchup against the two-time defending champion Buffalo Bandits.
The Bandits (13-5) have been atop the NLL standings all season, and their home arena, the KeyBank Center, will once again be packed for the matchup.
However, the eighth-seeded Seals (9-9) split a pair of regular-season meetings with the Bandits. San Diego’s 14-13 win in Buffalo on Feb. 15 snapped the Bandits’ 16-game winning streak dating back to last season.
The Seals squeezed into the playoffs with a thrilling 11-10 home win over Albany last week; a win Friday over Buffalo would advance them to face either Vancouver or Rochester in a best-of-three semifinal matchup starting next weekend.
The 19,200-capacity KeyBank Center will be loud. This season, the Bandits broke the NLL record for attendance with 166,238 total people attending nine home games. Four games sold out.
As of Thursday morning, only a limited number of tickets were available for the playoff tilt.
“It’s wild,” Seals coach Patrick Merrill said. “Banditland. They have a great group of loyal fans so it’s going to be a crazy environment but we’ve got a group of experienced guys who have played at this time of year. We didn’t build this team to just get to the playoffs. We built it to win the Cup, and we knew it was going to go through Banditland. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Only two goals separated the teams in those two regular-season meetings. The Bandits won the second matchup 13-12 on Feb. 22 at Pechanga Arena.
Expect another high-scoring matchup. The Bandits lead the NLL with 242 goals scored; the Seals are fifth with 215.
“We’re kind of used to these types of games,” said Seals captain Wes Berg, who totaled seven goals and six assists in the two games against Buffalo. “Been playing ’em all season, it feels like. So this team doesn’t crack. We kind of just hang in there and keep playing no matter what. Try to keep it going.”
The game will air live on ESPN+.
Heads up
The San Diego Strike Force (1-2) of the Indoor Football League will host the Tucson Sugar Skulls (1-2) Sunday at Frontwave Arena. Kickoff is 7:05 p.m.
The Strike Force are ranked 10th in the 14-team IFL in this week’s coach’s poll. All IFL games stream on IFLnetwork.com.
Legion head to L.A.
After opening 5-0 and looking dominant in doing so, the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby have dropped four straight games. San Diego will try to get back on track Saturday, when they take on Rugby Football Club LA (4-5) on campus at UCLA.
The Legion are coming off a 31-18 home loss to Utah but did beat RFCLA 36-28 at Torero Stadium back in Week 4.
The match will air live on KUSI-TV (Ch. 9/51).
Elsewhere
The San Diego Mojo (9-15) of the Pro Volleyball Federation travels to Vegas (9-15) on Friday night before heading east to take on Indianapolis (12-12) on Sunday afternoon. All PFV matches stream on the league’s YouTube page.
• The San Diego Rebellion (3-0) of the 17-team Women’s National Football Conference visit the Las Vegas Stars (2-1) Saturday at 6 p.m. All WNFC games stream via victoryplus.com.
