Historic Night in Vancouver: Warriors Host First-Ever Home Playoff Game in Do-or-Die Clash Against Rochester

Megan Swain/GATG

The Vancouver Warriors played their first ever playoff game at home on April 26, 2025. They faced off against the Rochester Nighthawks. In this quarter-final match, the loser was instantly eliminated and the winner moved on, making this a must-win for both teams. 

The Warriors had home-field advantage and looked to bring home a victory in front of the hometown crowd to secure a spot in the semi-finals. Which is exactly what they did with a 15-10 win over the Nighthawks.

The last time these two teams faced off was the Warriors home opener, meaning it’s been months since these teams have met and rosters have changed since then. 

The most notable change is that the Warriors acquired goalkeeper Christian Del Bianco, who is 7-0 with the Warriors, since their last meeting. Head Coach and General Manager, Curt Malawsky has a lot of trust and faith in Del Bianco. Malawsky has given him a lot of credit for their success in making the playoffs.

Despite being a team that has never made the National Lacrosse League (NLL) playoffs, they have veterans on the team that have played in the playoffs before. When discussing that Malawsky said, “I think it’s massive, you know, experience, you can’t buy that… They understand what it takes to be successful in the National Lacrosse League.” Malawsky knows this team has what it takes and it showed against the Nighthawks.

From the opening face-off of Roger’s Arena’s first ever Warriors playoffs,  the crowd was ready to cheer on the home-team to victory, celebrating early with Del Bianco’s first save of the game. 

Megan Swain/GATG

The crowd cheered even louder when the Warriors, Marcus Klarich, opened the scoring 2:08 into the game. But the Nighthawks quickly responded to tie the score 1-1.

The rest of the goals in the first quarter came from the Vancouver Warriors. The second goal came from Keegan Bal, who also assisted, without his helmet, on the third goal, which came from Dylan McIntosh. The Warriors would score one more from Ryan Dilks for a score of 4-1 in favour of the Warriors at the end of the first quarter.

The Warriors continued their scoring ways into the second quarter scoring two more before the Nighthawks hit back scoring two of their own for a score of 6-3. The Warriors closed out the first half with 3 goals in the last three minutes for a score of 9-3 heading into the half. 

The third quarter saw only 2 goals from the Warriors, but they were both big. Owen Grant scored the first, on the penalty-kill, getting a short-handed goal and his first of the night, and the assist went to Del Bianco. The second Warrior goal of the quarter went to Bal, his third of the night, completing a hat trick.

The third quarter was not heavy on goals from either team, with the Nighthawks only scoring 2 as well, but credit can be given to Del Bianco for this. Roughly halfway into the quarter, the Nighthawks had the ball past Del Bianco and inching towards the net, but he caught it at the last minute. The score at the end of the third quarter was 11-5.

Rochester came out strong in the fourth quarter, pulling within 3 of the Warriors for a score of 11-8. The Warriors held on scoring 4 after this, two of which were empty netters, for a final score of 15-10.

One of these empty net goals came from Bal, and he ended the night with a total of 5 goals and 6 assists tallying 11 points on his first ever playoff appearance.

Bal had a huge performance in this playoff game, but he was not the only one. Adam Charalambides put up 5 assists. Kevin Crowley had 2 goals and 2 assists. While Del Bianco had 47 saves on the night. Overall, it was a team effort that got the Warriors their first playoff win in history.

“But you know, I was proud of them, you know, proud of the guys. How hard they battle for the guy next them, how much they care about the guy next to them,” says Malawsky about the Warriors getting this win. “And you can really see it in their eyes… They really care about each other.”

With the win over the Nighthawks, the Warriors advanced to the semi-finals where they will face the number-one seeded Buffalo Bandits in a best-of-three series. The first game will be played in Buffalo on Friday, May 2, and the second game will be played in Rogers Arena on Sunday, May 4, and if necessary, they will play again in Buffalo on Saturday, May 10.

It will be a challenge for the Warriors to take on the number one team in the NLL, but Malawsky has said, “I promise you this: we’ll be prepared to play on Friday.”