Despite their best efforts, the magic finally ran out Saturday for the Saskatchewan Rush as the dynastic Buffalo Bandits dashed the team’s hopes for a National Lacrosse League title.
The Bandits would hold the Rush off the scoresheet over the final two quarters of Saturday’s Game 3 tilt in Buffalo. The hosts taking contest at KeyBank Center to earn a third consecutive NLL championship by a 15-6 final score.
After keeping their season alive with a Game 2 victory on their home floor last Sunday, the Rush came out firing in the final and scored the opening goal for the third straight game, courtesy of Austin Shanks.
At the midpoint of the first quarter, they held a 3-2 lead. But that soon vanished as the Bandits went on a 5-0 run through the final three minutes of the first quarter and the opening five minutes of the second quarter.
Putting the Bandits up to a 7-3 lead were goals from Chris Cloutier, Ian MacKay, Kyle Buchanan and a pair from Josh Byrne. Saskatchewan, however, countered before halftime with Robert Church’s first two goals of the series, as well as a Ryan Keenan marker to cut the Buffalo lead to 7-6 at the break.
Coming out of halftime, however, the Bandits would take full control of the game, scoring six times in just over 11 minutes with Byrne and Cloutier completing hat-tricks. Dhane Smith also got on the board with a pair himself.
The Rush gave up two more goals in the fourth quarter from Buchanan and Cam Wyers and failed to find the back of the net themselves. At the end, they watched Buffalo raise the NLL Cup for a third-straight season.
Scoring seven goals and 12 points over the course of the series, MacKay took home NLL finals MVP honours.
The Game 3 loss ends Saskatchewan’s 2024-25 season, which saw the Rush return to NLL playoffs for the first time in six years and go 4-2 over the course of their run to the NLL championship series.