The Vancouver Warriors are headed to the NLL semifinals after a 15-10 win over the Rochester Knighthawks at Rogers Arena.
The Warriors had a five-goal run between the first and second quarters that helped them take a 9-3 lead at halftime. The Knighthawks went on a three-goal run to start the fourth quarter, cutting Vancouver’s lead to three, but the Warriors showed their never back down mentality and responded.
In a game of runs, Warriors’ General Manager and Head Coach Curt Malawsky knew the Knighthawks were going to make a push down the stretch and his group was resilient and willing to do anything to win in high pressure moments of the game.
“We were able to answer right back, and we weathered the storm. Sometimes you get up big and you play not to lose, so that was the message we’ve got to keep our pedal down because things can turn around quick,” Malawsky said.
“You’ve got the bend, don’t break mentality which I really liked about our group, and you really need that in the playoffs, but I was proud of them. Proud of the guys how hard they battle for the guy next to them, how much they care about the guy next to them and you could really see it in their eyes – I always say belief is in a man’s eyes and you can’t fake that.”
The Warriors’ stalwart defence was back at it again, blocking shots and playing physical. Vancouver was 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and Owen Grant scored another shorthanded goal and the Warriors’ defence saw goals from Jeff Cornwall and Ryan Dilks in transition.
Goaltender Christian Del Bianco turned aside 47 shots in the win.
“Finish our checks and be heavy on the cross check and that’s what the guys did tonight. They soaked a lot of shots and when they got by us Delbs was there,” Malawsky said.
Keegan Bal had an 11-point night, scoring five goals and tallying six assists in his first NLL playoff game. Bal says he tempered his excitement this week leading up to the game and that this win is a building block, but they aren’t satisfied.
It’s every NLL player’s aspiration to win a championship and Bal says when the Warriors got coach Malawsky, those aspirations felt like they could be reality.
“When we got Curt last year, you just saw a momentous change within the organization top down. From that [point] I don’t think there’s been a moment where that clicked, it’s been a gradual progression, and I think that was actually the moment you started to see things have changed – drastically changed,” Bal said.
The Warriors set the tone in the first half and Bal liked how his team was ready to go from the first draw.
“I thought we were aggressive right away. We went on that run in the first half, and I thought we didn’t wait [and] didn’t take a step back, we just played downhill,” Bal said.
After the three-goal Rochester run in the fourth, Bal was the one to respond with a goal from range to stop the run and give the Warriors a 12-8 lead.
“They went on their run in the second half, I thought we took our foot off the gas just a little bit, but other than that I thought we really stuck to our game plan,” Bal said.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about all year, don’t change no matter what happens, no matter the score, continue with our game plan and play in our five-minute segments.”
Bal in NET‼️
VAN – 12
ROC – 8 pic.twitter.com/3Yd2SG4omu— Vancouver Warriors (@VanWarriors) April 27, 2025
As Bal and Malawsky look ahead to Buffalo, Bal says they will prepare the same way they’ve prepared all season, with workouts, film, and recovery.
“Our coaching staff is second-to-none in this league. We know that they’re going to be prepared, they’re going to have all the answers for the ‘what if’ scenarios and how we want to attack them, and we’ll just listen to whatever they say. From our standpoint as players, take care of our bodies, make sure we do everything this week to put ourselves in a position to succeed,” Bal said.
As the Buffalo Bandits are the No. 1 seed, they will have host the Warriors for Game 1 which will be on Friday, May 2nd at 4:00 p.m. PT.
