Albeit the punctuation didn’t arrive immediately, as Jimmy Quinlan’s offense scripted an off-hand pass from Zach Manns to Austin Shanks behind the net for a dunk to open the scoring once again less than a minute into the game. In contrast, it took Buffalo over three minutes for their first shot on goal, but it wasn’t wasted, as Josh Byrne fought off aggressive defense from Mike Messenger and willed his way to the net for a crease diving statement. Unfortunately, his dive landing him into the lap of Frank Scigliano did give him a minor penalty after the ball crossed the line, so the Rush headed to the powerplay and picked the lead right back up, as Shanks caught the Bandits PKers in set up mode, with only two of the 5 man unit past the restraining line to get set up for the powerplay, and swept a shot through the five-hole of Matt Vinc. After about a four minute delay due to one of the shot clocks going dark, Byrne found Dhane Smith off a screen from Chris Cloutier for a goal from the arena script logo, evening the score at 2. The Bandits defense settled in a bit on their next couple of possessions, disrupting possessions with a pair of blocks as the game entered its first TV timeout.

As the timeout started, Adam Jay gave Ian MacKay a couple of high shoves, and while the officials let them play on, the Bandits did take note of it, and as the game resumed, Steve Priolo joined the offense and baited Jay into a roughing penalty. While Priolo also went to the box, the captain was there to provide the Rush a reminder whose house they were in during this game and that they weren’t going to get away with attempting to be the more intimidating team. With the game now at 4-on-4, Frank Scigliano robbed MacKay in tight, and back the other way, Zach Manns isolated and swam past Cam Wyers and right to the net to give the Rush the lead back, with an arm waving celebration along the boards that at least provided a facade that the penalty sequence and the gargantuan task at hand wasn’t something Saskatchewan felt was as big of a challenge as reality presented. There were no more scratches on either side for the rest of the offsetting penalties, and the game played in into the final six minutes of the opening quarter.

Steve Priolo broke up the next marquee chance of the game, as Austin Shanks was left alone in front, but the Bandits captain was able to help off his man and break up the impending quick stick before it could be directed towards the net. After Nick Weiss broke up a pass attempt on the next Rush possession, the offense had their reward, as Chris Cloutier pump faked his man and drove to the net, sneaking the game-tying goal over the far shoulder of Frank Scigliano with 3:37 left in the quarter, easily upheld after a Rush challenge. After Jake Naso won the ensuing faceoff cleanly, the rookie stalled long enough to be able to speed in for what looked to be an open shot opportunity, but Matt Vinc took a step off the goal line to throw a check as Naso dove in and sent the shot wide. A trio of saves from Scigliano and some help from the crossbar on the other end of the floor kept the score 3-3 after 1.

Josh Byrne gave the Bandits their first lead of the game 1:30 into the new quarter, and what felt like bookending an intermission very quickly turned into something more than that. After the Rush were called for a violation on a touch after running through the crease, the Bandits booked it in transition and had a passing sequence from Cam Wyers and Dylan Robinson finished off by Ian MacKay. The Bandits won the ensuing faceoff, and for the second time in less than 90 seconds, Kyle Buchanan fed Josh Byrne for an outside goal, a completed hat trick for Byrne. The Rush turned the ball over on each of their next two possessions, and Buchanan got open space off a screen from Chase Fraser and extended the lead to 7-3 only 4:14 into the second quarter. It was now officially the longest Bandits run of the Finals, and Thomas Kiazyk was about to enter the game for Frank Scigliano. With how well Buffalo played in the Finals through 2 games, even in the context of dropping one of the two games, the only thing that had been missing was a stampede of a run, which are synonymous with this era. The familiar taste was returning to the mouths of the sold out crowd at KeyBank Center.

But after picking up the ensuing faceoff, Robert Church rolled off an off-ball screen and finished a pass from Ryan Keenan for the immediate answer, narrowing the deficit to 3. While the goal differential wasn’t substantially changed, breaking up the run and not only getting a scoring chance, but finishing the job as well, reminded the Rush that there was plenty of game still to be played, courtesy of their two veteran leaders up front. As Scigliano returned to the crease after the 8 second pseudo-timeout, the Rush got the ball back again, but an interrupted dunk attempt forced a shot clock violation that summoned the under 10 timeout: fantastic timing considering that the earlier unsuccessful challenge used up their first half timeout.

The break did indeed benefit the Rush, accelerated by a Mike Messenger blocked shot and an extended possession afterwards. While a high danger chance for Ryan Barnable in transition sailed over the net, the next time Saskatchewan got the ball back, Church found Keenan to cut the deficit to 2 with 7:17 left in the quarter. Another big save from Scigliano on a Tehoka Nanticoke crease dive kept the score as is a couple minutes later, and then after Jake Boudreau blocked a Dhane Smith shot out of the under 5 timeout, the Rush player with the biggest target on his back going into the game (after suggesting that he isn’t intimidated by Banditland because they’re not on the floor setting screens), started a fastbreak and fed Church off the bench, and it was once again a one score game. They also got the benefit of a holding penalty against Buffalo to go to the powerplay with the chance to tie the game with the half dwindling down, but after starting out with a turnover from Nick Weiss, the Bandits PK held up. The best look for the Rush came with a four shot possession in the middle of the two minutes, but the first three offerings missed the net before the final look from Church was stopped up high by Matt Vinc. The penalty expired, and the score would remain the same after 30.

Continuing to hold the lead into the break put Buffalo in prime position, with “Win a half, Win a championship” taking over, and if there was any lingering doubt that the Bandits weren’t phased with the late push from the Rush in the second quarter, Chase Fraser provided another one for the highlight reel, rolling and then after drawing contact with the defender, putting a one-handed behind the back shot on net 1:34 into the new quarter. After Zach Manns had a shot blocked by Nick Weiss on the next Rush possession, Josh Byrne scored on the run from outside with a shot that threw Frank Scigliano off balance and pushed the lead back up to 3, just like that. Scigliano got one back with a kick save on Byrne on the next Bandit possession, and then denying Fraser with a sprawling arm save to prevent further derailment on the scoreboard. But on the other side of the floor, the ball stayed out of the net as well. Two Matt Vinc saves on Mike Triolo with 7 minutes left in the new quarter led to Dhane Smith being left uncontested off a screen and scoring from midrange.

From there, the metronome was activated. Two minutes after Smith’s goal, a transition save from Vinc led to a sweeping goal from outside from Chris Cloutier off a screen from Tehoka Nanticoke. Zach Manns to Ryan Keenan open in front was stopped again by Vinc, and then Smith created traffic and scored from outside again. Then after the Rush were forced into another shot clock violation, it was Cloutier once again sweeping from deep for another Bandits goal. 4 more goals in about 4 more minutes. Along with 13 saves from Matt Vinc in the quarter, a close game turned into the foundation of a rout, with the Bandits now leading 13-6.

The Bandits offense cooled back down to open the fourth quarter, but that came along with the increase in the value of killing clock with the seven goal lead. For the defense, however, they still had their foot on the gas, and the Rush’s offense remained relatively stumped. A cup check from Chase Fraser on Mike Messenger gave Saskatchewan a powerplay with 7:56 left in the quarter, their first prime scoring opportunity since Brock Haley was stopped in close by Matt Vinc in the first two minutes of the fourth, and Vinc was once again there to make a stop on Robert Church on the crease after rebounding a shot of Ryan Keenan went wide. Church had a second shot stopped on the second possession of the man advantage, and then Justin Martin blocked a shot from Zach Manns on the reset, and Manns’s shot in the final seconds of the powerplay was also stopped by Vinc. When Buffalo got the ball back as Fraser came back on the floor, Kyle Buchanan scored his second goal of the game from nearly an identical spot to end the 4th quarter stalemate and extend the lead to 8 with 5:18 left. Haley again got a chance in front out of the final TV timeout of the season, and Vinc once again was ready to make the save. After the Rush got the rebound, Zach Manns was stripped by pressure from Nick Weiss and Cam Wyers, and after Weiss was stopped on a breakaway, Wyers was there to take out the trash and bury what would be the final goal of the NLL season.

The rest of the remaining 3:20 were all but a formality. Paul Dawson got the honors of being the final player to possess the ball in the closing seconds before propelling it down the floor, kicking off the celebration for the third consecutive summer in the zamboni-end goal crease. The Buffalo Bandits had completed the three-peat.

Lost in the attention of the three-peat was another major milestone that was accomplished with the championship victory: their seventh championship. The Philadelphia Wings had held onto the honor of having the most championships in the NLL since winning their third and fourth in 1994 and 1995, reaching 6 total by 2001. Between 1999 and 2011, the Toronto Rock accumulated 6 titles of their own to join the Wings at that number. But now for the first time in over 30 years, there was a new franchise owning the honor of the most titles.

It’s fitting that the most complete team of this era of Buffalo Bandits lacrosse finished out the NLL Finals with their most complete game: A third game in a row for the defense forcing more than 30 Rush shots to miss the net, 10 total blocked shots, 10 caused turnovers, 0 goals allowed in the second half. In 2023, the 13-4 win over the Colorado Mammoth had a lot of attention turned to Matt Vinc’s domination in the game, and while his 42 saves were certainly another masterclass on a resume that continues to scroll downward, with 25 of the saves coming in the second half shutout, of the three championships, this entire playoff run feels like a culmination of the building efforts of the entire defensive unit. And those accolades are greater than potential individual awards that could’ve come along the way.

For some though, individual accolades come as part of the process, and with Ian MacKay being handed the Finals MVP, with 7 of his 16 goals and 5 of his 8 assists in the playoffs coming in the finals, the soon-to-be 31 year old has shifted from the unsung hero to one of the faces of the team all in the span of the spring. While his goal scoring has taken a bit of a back seat during this playoff run, Josh Byrne was able to break through the logjam and pick up 4 goals in the series finale. He finishes the playoffs with 22 assists, 5 in Game 3, which served to remind those that may have been worried about his lack of goal scoring in this postseason that a big reason for there being less goals was Ian MacKay’s heater. His fellow former MVP teammate, Dhane Smith, who continues to add to his heater of winning championships, remained as consistent as ever with 3 goals and 5 assists. Returning to the lineup after missing Game 2 with the lower-body injury that has hobbled him for most of the playoffs, Chris Cloutier had 3 goals and an assist.

For the Rush, while they weren’t necessarily a Cinderella finalist to the extent that a team like Albany was last year, it’s a disappointing end to a breakout season during which they returned to the success levels that they had during the previous era. Robert Church led their offense with points on all 6 of their goals (2 goals and 4 assists), but otherwise, nobody had more than two points (2G for Austin Shanks, 1G 1A for Ryan Keenan, 2A for Matt Hossack). Despite the struggles in the second half, Frank Scigliano still finished with 40 saves.

(Photo Credit: Buffalo Bandits)