May 17, 2008

by Tom Borrelli, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online

Mike Thompson was the only person in jam-packed HSBC Arena standing between history or destiny Saturday night.

He found himself staring down 18-year-old rookie Peter Jacobs with the precious few final seconds ticking away and the Portland LumberJax on the verge of pushing his Buffalo Bandits into overtime.

As the orange-clad sellout crowd roared, Jacobs loaded and fired - with an unobstructed view - from about 15 feet away. In a heartbeat that seemed more like an eternity to the home folks, Thompson got low and smothered the shot, preserving a dramatic 14-13 triumph by the Bandits.

The horn sounded and Thompson's teammates poured over the boards and onto the field, celebrating the Bandits' first Champion's Cup final victory in 12 years.

"Mikey stepped up huge for us back there," said Buffalo transition man Mark Steenhuis, minutes after being named the game's Most Valuable Player thanks to five goals, an assist and eight loose balls. "You have to give tons of credit to him."

Thompson, who had watched as Ken Montour backstopped the 19-12 win over the New York Titans in the East Division final last week, finished with 39 saves, including 23 in the second half.

"They had a great opportunity and Mikey stopped it," said Buffalo's Darris Kilgour, who joined fellow Hall of Famers Les Bartley and Tony Resch with double-digit playoff victories by a head coach with 10. "He makes the big save and we've seen it all year long."

Kilgour was a key player on the last Buffalo team to win a championship, back in 1996 when the team was still playing its home games in Memorial Auditorium.

Three times since then the Bandits had reached the Champion's Cup final but failed to win - at home against Rochester in 1997, on the road against Calgary in 2004 and at home against Colorado in '06.

Though they never trailed Saturday night, the Bandits (13-6) were pushed to the limit by the LumberJax (8-11), who had scored 34 goals in winning their first two playoff games on the road.

"It's disappointing because we'd said all year that our goal was to get to the playoffs and we all thought we could really achieve something if we got there," said Jax coach Derek Keenan. "We really didn't feel like underdogs. We played like we felt we could win."

The Bandits, who finished the season on a five-game winning streak, looked as if they were about to put away the Jax several times. Twice they led by three late in the third quarter, the last time when Buffalo defenseman Billy Dee Smith checked Portland All-Star transition man Brodie Merrill to the turf, scooped a loose ball and broke in alone against Jax goalie Matt Disher. Smith buried his shot, while Buffalo played short-handed, with 1:13 left in the third for a 13-10 edge.

But just 26 seconds later, Peter Morgan beat Thompson after taking a sweet behind-the-back flip from Derek Malawsky and the Jax were within 13-11 going into the final 15 minutes.

In victories over San Jose and Calgary the two previous weeks, the Jax had overcome fourth-quarter deficits. They also had an advantage because the Bandits had lost All-Star defenseman Chris White to an ankle injury just 3 ½ minutes into the action, leaving Buffalo's remaining back liners to play longer shifts.

"Things got a little bit scary," said Bandits forward John Tavares, who contributed two goals and two assists.

To say the least.

Dan Dawson netted a transition goal just 1:08 into the final quarter to cut Buffalo's lead to 13-12. That gave him three goals and six assists on the night, bringing his incredible postseason totals to 15 goals and 16 assists in three games.

Less than a minute later, Thompson made an acrobatic save on Ray Guze, who was left all alone in front after scooping the rebound of a shot by teammate Tyler Codron.

"Mikey was the difference tonight," said a glum Dawson, who has reached the championship game three times in the last four years but is still without a ring. "We didn't bury our opportunities. It's just tough."

With 8:49 left, Thompson put his left shoulder in harm's way of a hard missile from Ryan Powell, who had two goals and six assists and was the engine behind a strong third quarter that got the Jax right back in the game.

Steenhuis' last goal came with 5:37 left and proved to be the winner. He put Merrill to the turf with a nifty fake and waltzed in alone against Disher to put Buffalo ahead, 14-12.

"He was on tonight," Merrill said of Steenhuis. "He presents a really hard matchup. When he gets a head of steam up in transition, he's pretty hard to stop."

Back to work went the Jax and their hard efforts were rewarded with several more good chances.

With 3:01 left, Thompson deftly slid from his right to the left goal post to stop a shot by Morgan that seemed headed for the back of the net.

With exactly a minute left, Thompson got his right shoulder on a long shot by Powell. Thompson stopped Jacobs in close with 35 seconds left then survived two Portland attempts on the final Jax possession.

"There's the birth of your kids, getting married and then this," said Bandits captain Rich Kilgour, who is 39 and the coach's older brother. "It's just euphoria. Especially this year, after we were struggling, then to win it at home."

Steenhuis scored at least once in every quarter, giving him 12 goals in the final two games. Kevin Dostie potted three, including two in a row midway through the first quarter that broke a 2-2 tie and put Buffalo ahead to stay.

Disher, a former Bandit, made 27 saves and played his best in the second half as well.

"I thought he was just outstanding after halftime," said Keenan, who made the decision to start Disher over 18-year veteran Dallas Eliuk on Saturday morning. Disher had left the win over Calgary with a strained medial collateral ligament in his right knee and his playing status was uncertain all week.

"It was really a pain tolerance thing," Keenan explained. "He ended up doing a really nice job for us."

Just not quite as nice a job as Thompson.