In the first two rounds, the Bandits were playing nearly perfect lacrosse. Through two games, Colorado gave them two games worth of adjustments to what they had seen on film in May. But as they did after getting blown out by Toronto in the regular season, the Bandits regrouped, got Josh Byrne back in the lineup and came together for their most complete win of the season at the right time to pick up their 5th championship in franchise history.

What that 5th championship means will get its own post later on. For this one, let’s talk about the game

First Quarter: Locked In

It’s funny how both teams being locked into the greatest extent with the highest stakes more times than not means that scoring falls off despite the action being as good as it can get. And that’s really how the first quarter went. The Bandits broke through first early on, with Tehoka Nanticoke going to the net at a full sprint as the trailer in the set offense and beating Dillon Ward to the post to send Banditland into its first frenzy of the night. From there, the goalies took center stage, with their defenses giving them the shots they want to see and turning them aside, with Colorado getting their lone breakthrough on a cross-floor pass from Ryan Lee to Connor Robinson for the quick stick on the doorstep.

It looked like the score would remain that way heading into the first quarter break, with the Mammoth holding strong on their first penalty kill of the night. Dillon Ward kicked aside an outside shot from Dhane Smith with 5 seconds left, but Josh Bryne caught the rebound, fired from outside the restraining line, and beat Ward two-tenths of a second before the horn sounded with a little help in front from a deflection off of Jordan Gilles.

Second Quarter: Locked Down

Third Quarter: Allow [Josh] to Reintroduce [him]self

We’ll probably never know how close or not it may have come to Josh Byrne not playing in Game 3 with the upper body injury that kept him out of both games last weekend, but if there was any doubt lingering that the injury was affecting his performance in the deciding game, the third quarter erased it quickly. He opened the second half scoring 27 seconds in with a deep bouncer to make the score 5-2, and then in a similar setup, pulled up from deep again with a stepback on Evan Downey to make it 6-2 with 11:46 left in the quarter.

The Mammoth finally broke back through at even strength with Eli McLaughlin getting his second of the game on a bouncer of his own with 4:27 left in the quarter, but it was Byrne erasing it 29 seconds later to get the lead back to 4, and then Dhane Smith got into the goal column for the first time on the night after a series of fakes with 2:18 left in the quarter to make it 8-3.

Everything was coming up Bandits, and it was starting to show over the horizon.

Fourth Quarter: A 15-Minute Sigh Of Relief

Frustrations began to boil over for the Mammoth with just under 12 minutes to play, as Zed Williams went after Josh Byrne after the whistle after taking another roughing penalty in the meantime, taking Justin Martin with him, but the double minor gave the Bandits a powerplay which Chris Cloutier capitalized on with 11:36 to play. Chris Wardle squeaked in an answer on a dunk attempt that was ruled a goal and upheld after a challenge due to inconclusive evidence to make it 9-4, but the Bandits from there made sure everyone in the building knew that this game was over.

19 seconds later, Matt Spanger buried in transition to give the Bandits their Moe’s clinching goal and a 6-goal lead, Brad McCulley buried a cross-floor quick stick from Dhane Smith 1:18 later, and then Max Adler scored his second-ever goal and first non-penalty shot on the ensuing faceoff only 5 seconds later, sending 18,296 plus another 30 members of the Bandits organization into the frenzy they’ve been waiting 15 years for. There was still 9:27 to play, but at 12-4, the rest was a formality. Dhane got his second of the game with 5:41 left to push the lead to 9, and the party was on from there, with continued save after save from Matt Vinc to bring the Bandits to the final horn. 13-4 the final.

All 18

As I mentioned off the top, it was a complete masterpiece from all 18 Bandits to appear in the championship-clinching victory. 4 goals on 11 shots on goal and 3 assists from Josh Byrne in his return were massive and took the headlines, but it was an all-around show from Dhane Smith to lead the Bandits in points with 2 goals and another 7 assists. In 6 games, Smith led the playoffs with 15 goals and 34 assists (A 45-goal, 102 Assist Pace) and racked up a well-deserved Finals MVP. The secondary trio of Chase Fraser, Chris Cloutier, and Tehoka Nanticoke each had 3 points.

Eli McLaughlin and Connor Robinson had 3 points each, but the story of their night starts and ends with the performance of Matt Vinc’s 46 saves on 50 shots against – a .920 save percentage. In typical Vno fashion, it breaks his previous record for the fewest goals allowed in a finals game, which was 6 in 2012 in the first of three straight championships for the Rochester Knighthawks. It was the fewest goals scored by the Mammoth in a game since they only scored 6 in their season opener against the Rush and the first time since December 11, 2021, that they only managed 4 goals in a game. Previously, it was only 4 goals that cost them a trip to the West Finals in 2019, so those games share the tie for fewest goals in a playoff game for the now no longer defending champs. Dillon Ward made 47 saves on 60 shots against in the loss, as he will now focus on defending his PLL championship with the Waterdogs this summer.

Housekeeping

So that puts a bow on the 2022-23 NLL season. Thank you so much for following both the Knighthawks and Bandits along the way. It was an excellent first season covering the team for Expected Buffalo, and next year we’re hoping to do some more stat-y things with the coverage as the Bandits go on a quest to become the first repeat champion since the 2015 and 2016 Rush.

But for now, the Bandits will have their championship rally at 5 pm in Alumni Plaza on Thursday, June 15, and then head over to Sahlen Field as the Bisons will be hosting their Lacrosse Night at 7.