The National Lacrosse League season will push forward one more week, as the Colorado Mammoth, led once again by Zed Williams, was able to force a third game of the NLL Finals, defeating the Buffalo Bandits 11-8 in front of 10,082 at Ball Arena in Denver.

The tale of the tape found itself changing on the fly in the afternoon leading up to the game, as Eli McLaughlin was placed on injured reserve. It’s believed the lower-body injury was sustained on the final play of game one after he attacked the crease. He was shown pregame sitting on the bench with crutches behind him next to Ryan Lee, the other Mammoth star forward on injured reserve. With the playoff league leader in points (20G 21A in 5 games) now on the shelf, it would be up to Connor Robinson and Zed Williams to take an even larger role on the Mammoth offense, and they both showed up to the plate ready to show out.

It was Williams who was able to get scoring underway in the game as Dylan Kinnear found him for a net-front quick-stick. The Bandits first scoring opportunity came in transition from Josh Byrne, but it was called off on a crease violation call. John Tavares threw the challenge flag, to which it was shown that Byrne’s patented vertical leap crease-side landed before the ball crossed the goal line. Aside from Chris Cloutier hitting the crossbar in transition in the final minute, that was all for the offense in the first quarter, and the Mammoth led 1-0 after 15.

The Mammoth got the first goal of the second quarter as well with Connor Robinson letting one go from long-range, throwing off Matt Vinc, and making it 2-0. Dhane Smith got the Bandits first goal of the night on a give-and-go from Chris Cloutier to end the 20-minute drought. Matt Vinc cut off the Mammoth’s counter-scoring attempt stopping Joey Cupido on a breakaway after a Bandits offense miscue. It was another transition opportunity that resulted in the next goal, but it was from the Bandits as Steve Priolo led the break and flipped to the trailing Ian MacKay who used a Priolo screen to get his hand free for the shot. Smith got his second of the night moments later to give the Bandits their first lead of the night after jabbing and driving on Jalen Chaster. It wasn’t much longer for the Bandits to continue the run with a Josh Byrne quick stick off a pass from Smith. Colorado took a penalty on the ensuing possession, and Chris Cloutier was the one to finish for the Bandits’ prolific powerplay. 6 straight minutes of Bandits offensive dominance to go on a 5-0 and take a 5-2 lead, as we’ve seen countless times throughout the year. Zed Williams was able to end the run to make it 5-3 with 2:52 to go in the half, but that was not the end of the scoring for the half, as Air Byrne went back up into the air and buried a feed from Connor Fields. The Mammoth was able to score on the final possession of the quarter thanks to Connor Robinson to cut the deficit back to 2 before halftime, with the Bandits leading 6-4.

Once again it was Colorado scoring first in the quarter, courtesy of Williams’s hat trick-clinching goal 69 seconds in, but Chris Cloutier was able to immediately counter on the next possession to bring it to 7-5. Connor Robinson got his hat trick with 11:25 to go in the third before scoring calmed back down for a little bit. The Bandits nearly got a last-second heave to go from Tehoka Nanticoke along the near penalty box with 4:40 to go in the quarter, but the shot clock had already expired, continuing a defensive third quarter that saw the score at 7-6 Bandits after 3.

The Bandits scored first in the fourth quarter after a Josh Byrne “shot” (it was absolutely a pass off the back boards) reached a cutting Kyle Buchanan to make it 8-6 in the first minute of the quarter, but then it was time for the Mammoth’s playoff identity to take over. Brett McIntyre got in on the scoring to counter a couple of minutes later and send it back to a one-goal game, and then Zed Williams went low-to-high from outside to tie the game with 10:56 to go. Then another minute later, Tyson Gibson found Dylan Kinnear back door, and the Mammoth had their first lead since 2-0. Gibson was able to join in on the scoring for the first time in the game off an underhand feed from Williams to make it 10-8 Mammoth. McIntyre scored again to make it 11-8 for the largest Mammoth lead of the night, and The Loud House was officially awoken. Matt Vinc went to the bench for the first time with 3 minutes left on the clock, but the Mammoth defense held tight the rest of the way, with Nick Weiss taking a major penalty with a minute to go putting the final nail in the coffin as the Mammoth were able to take care of business and force a third game with an 11-8 victory.

Game 3 will take place Saturday, June 18 at 7:30 at KeyBank Center. Now that there is a game of tape available for how the Mammoth proceeded without Eli McLaughlin, the key adjustment for Game 3 is going to start and end in one place: Stopping Zed Williams and Connor Robinson. Easier said than done, of course, but there’s no other way around it with the winner-take-all nature of this Game 3. On offense, two goals in a half are not going to get it done next week just as it didn’t tonight. There’s not much else to say though; it’s an offense that has not had too many duds, so aside from watching the film closely to see what may have changed, run it back and do everything in your power to start stronger at home.

Stat Breakdown

Bandits Box Score