The Bills nearly reached the top of the NFL mountain, while the Sabres managed to go as low as you can in the NHL.
For all that happened in Buffalo sports in 2021, the disparate fortunes of the two sides of Terry and Kim Pegula's sports empire dominated the talking points through much of the year.
In January, the Bills got within one win of the Super Bowl before dropping the AFC Championship Game at Kansas City in their first trip to the NFL's final four since 1994. That was also the month the Sabres started their fan-less slog through a shortened NHL season. By May, the club finished 31st in the NHL's overall standing for the second time in four seasons. It was time for a major rebuild – again.
Here's our list of the top 10 stories in local sports for 2021:
1. Bills win home playoff games, then fall in AFC Championship
After a 13-3 season that equaled the Super Bowl teams of 1990 and 1991 for the best in franchise history, the Bills posted their first playoff wins since 1995 by holding off Indianapolis (27-24) and Baltimore (17-3), the latter clinched on Taron Johnson's 101-yard interception return. After a season of playing in front of no fans, 6,700 were allowed into Highmark Stadium for each postseason game.
It was off to Arrowhead Stadium for their first AFC title game since beating Kansas City in 1994 in Orchard Park. Buffalo started strong by taking a 9-0 lead but Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs overwhelmed the Bills to pull away for a 38-24 win and a berth opposite Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.
2. Sabres trade Jack Eichel
The captain had just two goals in 21 games before his 2021 season was prematurely ended by a herniated disc in his neck suffered during a March game on Long Island. When he met the media after the season in May, he dropped a bombshell as he spoke openly of a "disconnect" with the Sabres about his medical care. In a summer of daily drama, the team declined to let Eichel get an artificial disc replacement surgery on his neck and insisted on a standard fusion procedure. The relationship was broken.
After months of no movement, a trade finally happened early on the morning of Nov. 4 with the Sabres in Seattle: Eichel was sent to Vegas for prospect forward Peyton Krebs, winger Alex Tuch and two draft picks that included Vegas' first-rounder this year. The next week, Eichel had his surgery and is rehabbing to likely debut for the Golden Knights in March.
3. Josh Allen's breakout season
The gunslinger from Wyoming left no doubt he was Buffalo's franchise quarterback, setting franchise records for passing yards (4,544) and touchdowns in a season (37), while earning Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors. He finished second in the NFL's MVP voting to Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers.
Allen made major strides in all areas, perhaps none more important than improving his completion percentage of 52.8 and 58.8 over his first two seasons to an eye-popping 69.2%. The search for a long-term answer to Jim Kelly is finally over.
4. Sabres implode, then go for Power at No. 1 overall
The Sabres went 15-34-7 in their shortened 2021 season and fired coach Ralph Krueger in March in the midst of what would become a franchise-record 18-game winless streak. Assistant Don Granato was named interim coach and was given the job on a permanent basis June 29.
In July, the Sabres traded longtime veterans Sam Reinhart (to Florida) and Rasmus Ristolainen (to Philadelphia) and lost Jake McCabe and Linus Ullmark in free agency to Chicago and Boston, respectively. They won the draft lottery and, for the second time in four years, used the good fortune of the No. 1 pick to take a defenseman in University of Michigan stalwart Owen Power.
5. Blue Jays return to Buffalo, and so do the Bisons
Major League Baseball returned to Buffalo for the second consecutive year, but for the first time since 1915 fans were invited inside as the Toronto Blue Jays went 12-11 while playing in Sahlen Field as they awaited the re-opening of the Canadian border. Buffalo fans reveled in daily glimpses of Toronto's stars, including slugger Vladimir Guerrero and Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray.
The Bisons, meanwhile, spent the first three months of the season playing their home games in Trenton, N.J. They finally returned home Aug. 10 to see the multimillion dollar renovation of their ballpark and dumped the Rochester Red Wings, 11-0, in their first game downtown in nearly 24 months. The Bisons won their first division title since 2005 and their 79-47 record accounted for their second-highest winning percentage since 1927.
6. Bona men’s basketball sweeps A-10 for first time
The Mark Schmidt era at St. Bonaventure reached new heights in March as the Bonnies won the Atlantic 10 regular season championship for the first time in their history and followed that by winning the A-10 tournament for the first time since 2012. The double title, secured with a 74-65 win over Virginia Commonwealth in Dayton, Ohio, was a first in school annals. The season ended with a 16-5 record after a 76-61 loss to LSU as a No. 9 seed in an NCAA Tournament first-round game in Bloomington, Ind.
7. UB football shuffle: Leipold leaves, Linguist arrives
University at Buffalo football coach Lance Leipold, the winningest coach in UB's modern era with 37 wins and two bowl victories, left the school April 30 for Kansas. UB replaced Leipold with Michigan co-defensive coordinator Maurice "Mo" Linguist, who had been an assistant at UB in 2012-13. His first team played No. 16 Coastal Carolina close in a three-point September loss but went 4-8 after losing its final four games.
8. Heim's hits make history
Amherst native Jonah Heim got a pair of standing ovations in Sahlen Field on a July weekend while playing for the Texas Rangers against the Blue Jays after he got base hits in both of his starts. Heim had never played a game in the downtown ballpark and might be the only local player who will ever play an MLB game there. Back home in Texas, the switch-hitting catcher hit walkoff home runs in consecutive games against Seattle on July 31 and Aug. 1, becoming the first rookie in MLB history to accomplish that feat.
9. Bennett football reps the city
Bennett joined the 2015 South Park team in becoming the only Buffalo Public Schools entries to make a state football final. Bennett dropped its game to Carmel of Section I, 42-12, but the loss couldn't diminish one of the most spectacular seasons in city history. The 11-2 campaign landed Steve McDuffie honors as Buffalo News Coach of the Year. It included the Section VI Class AA title, a state quarterfinal victory over Rochester McQuaid and a rout of Cicero-North Syracuse in the state semifinal four days later..
10. Marlins reel in Joe Mack
Williamsville East catcher Joe Mack batted .500 to lead his team to the Section VI Class A-1 championship and then traveled to Denver as MLB ran its amateur draft in conjunction with the All-Star Game for the first time. Mack was taken at No. 31 by the Miami Marlins, making him the first WNY player taken in the first round since the Yankees tabbed Williamsville South's Matt Winters in 1978. Mack signed with Miami for a $2.5 million bonus and reported to Class A Jupiter (Fla.).
Honorable mention
• The class of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame included former Sabres player/broadcaster Mike Robitaille, former Bills standout Kyle Williams, ex-Canisius College basketball coach John Beilein and the 1958 UB football team that opted out of the Tangerine Bowl in support of Black players who were prevented from taking part by organizers.
• Accolades for UB women's basketball: Dyaisha Fair finished sixth in the nation in scoring at 24.1 points per game, needing only 44 games to get to 1,000 career points and becoming the fastest player in school history to get there. Her coach, Felisha Legette-Jack, became the first woman in any sport to have her number retired by Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.
• Williamsville South basketball star Amari DeBerry made her debut at Connecticut after becoming the first player from WNY named a McDonald’s All-American since the girls game began in 2002.
• With a Fall II season wedged between the winter and spring, Lancaster won its fifth straight Class AA football title with a 28-21 win over Orchard Park.
• Jalen Bradberry of Niagara Falls won the Allen Wilson Player of the Year in boys basketball, as awarded by The News. His father, Carlos, won the award in 1993 for LaSalle and they become the first father-son duo to capture it.
• Change at Canisius High School football program: Coach Rich Robbins stepped down for family reasons after going 78-29 with three State Catholic High School championships in 10 seasons. Earlier this month, Williamsville South's Kraig Kurzanski, a Canisius alum, took over the job from interim coach Bryan Gorman.
• The Portville girls volleyball team won its fifth state Class C title with a four-game win over Millbrook of Section I in the state final at Glens Falls.
• Penn State signee Shay Ciezki of St. Mary’s of Lancaster became a three-time All-Western New York first-team selection in girls basketball entering her senior year. She set a school record Dec. 3 with a 48-point game at Webster Schroeder and was one of seven St. Mary's girls in four sports to sign Division I letters of intent last month.
• Fellow St. Mary's standout Shae O’Rourke, who is headed to South Carolina, was one of 70 girls selected to the United Soccer Coaches Association’s All-America Team.
• Iroquois QB Trey Kleitz tied the WNY record for touchdown passes in a season with 37.
• Clarence senior Julianne Bolton struck out all 21 batters she faced in 12-0 ECIC softball victory over Frontier.
• Williamsville's Andrew Potarulski won the 2021 American Hockey League scoring title with nine goals and 43 points in 44 games for the San Diego Gulls. Playing for Chicago in 2021-22, Potarulski is again among the AHL scoring leaders. He also got assists for his first two NHL points with the Carolina Hurricanes during a callup this month.
