The Colorado Mammoth, shaking off an indifferent season, and many years of deep, talented frustration, finally has its National Lacrosse League championship.

The Tuskers, led by four goals from team captain and championship game MVP Gavin Prout, and four more from a pumped-up and blazing Brian Langtry, easily embarrassed the ragged and disintegrating Buffalo Bandits 16-9, in front of a disbelieving crowd of 16,104 at HSBC Arena.

This was a game where Colorado seemed to always have the ball. Mammoth goalie Gee Nash was solid, allowing almost no rebounds, while at the other end, newly crowned league MVP Steve Dietrich suffered through one of his poorest nights as a pro.

So disorganized was the Bandit attack that muscleman Troy Bonterre ended up as the only Buffalo player with two goals on the night. Delby Powless led all home-side scorers with a goal and five assists.

The first quarter well well-balanced, with lots of running and good chances going both ways. The first goal, appropriately, as it turned out, came directly off a bad Bandit miscue. Rookie Roger Vyse served up a wonky bounce pass Cory Bomberry couldn’t haul in. Colorado’s Josh Sims vacuumed it up at midfloor, and went the distance at 1:45.

The only other scoring of the quarter came late, when Jay Jalbert stormed the Buffalo crease, and got credited with both a goal and a goaltender interference penalty.

2-0 Colorado after one.

Bandit superstar John Tavares answered with an emphatic 30-foot diagonal scoring rip at 1:42 of the second. But it would be his only point of the night, and he would soon be hobbled by a pulled hamstring. Worse still for Buffalo, all-pro all-purpose sparkplug Mark Steenhuis would have trouble getting within fifty feet of the ball for the rest of the quarter.

The game’s first significant turning point came at 3:06, when Buffalo defender and freelance violence enthusiast Billy Dee Smith took a five-minute penalty for illegal crosschecking. John Gallant of the Mammoth immediately forced a fine leg save out of Dietrich on a two-on-one.

Then Colorado served up three goals in just 28 seconds. Dan Carey beat Dietrich with a thirty-five foot slot bouncer at 4:49. Prout quickly followed up with a nasty screener from the slot, which glanced in off the goalie’s glove at 5:07. That ended Smith’s penalty, but it took only ten more seconds to rip home his second of the night from just off the edge of the Bandit crease.

The onslaught continued. Langty was narrowly denied when his forty-foot underhander hit the post. Then, after a pretty good run of actual pressure from the Bandits, Colorado veteran rearguard Pat Coyle lofted a perfect downfloor pass to Prout, who scored easily. Langty then got his first, untouched from mid-slot at 11:12. The Bandits finally answered, very late, when Bonterre worked his was to the top of Nash’s crease, and redirected home a singing corner pass from Rich Kilgour.

7-2 Mammoth at the break.

The Bandits looked determined to start the second half. Steehuis finally hooked up with the ball, and did well to draw two defenders and work his way right to the edge of the Colorado crease. But there was no way through -- and all his teammates stopped running! Inevitably, the play broke down, and Dan Stroup scored for Colorado at the other end.

Then Kim Squire worked his way free for Buffalo, but ended up floating the ball straight into Nash’s goalie stick. Again, back came the Mammoth, going up 9-2 on Jalbert’s running peek-a-boo shot around a slow-footed defender at 2:05.

That, for the moment, was it for Dietrich. Bandit coach Darris Kilgour summoned his shell-shocked goalie to the bench, and sent in former Six Nations Arrows backstop Ken Montour. In response, Buffalo would play its best lacrosse of the entire night.

Powless struck first, sneaking one home from the restraining line. Dan Teat then pulled the same move, with a surprise shot on a crossing run. Vyse thought he had cut the deficit to 9-5, but his well-screened net job was called back for an illegal pick. Seconds later, Vyse got a second chance and made it count, picking Nash’s top corner at 6:51.

Colorado got one back, though. Prout floated across the middle and beat his former Jr. A nemesis Montour with a scything three-quarters rip.

The Bandits kept the pressure on, however, and got paid for it. Squire cashed in a diagonal smoker that bounded in off Nash’s pads. Then Squire and Powless teamed up like in their Arrows days, ripping a pair of high-speed cross-crease passes that ultimately found Jason Crosbie wide open on the doorstep to cut the damage to 10-7.

But Langtry cut a good chunk out of Buffalo’s momentum, sneaking in sideways and untouched to beat Montour at 13:27.

11-7 Colorado after three. A fine Bandit quarter has shaved just a single goal off the visitors’ lead.

Dietrich returned to open the final frame. Tavares tried to, but remained ineffective.

Langtry scored first for the Mammoth, looping one home from the slot at 1:45. Steenhuis answered just thirteen seconds later, in-close to the top, short side.

Buffalo then suffered a very marginal illegal crosscheck call on Pat McCready that left them two men short. Colorado took the opportunity to kill the clock, making little serious attempt to add to its lead. Then Prout hit the post, and the rebound sprung Kyle Laverty on a florr-length breakaway for Buffalo.

Nash made the save. Back at the other end, Colorado’s Tom Ethington snuck a soft squibber through Dietrich’s pads to extend the lead to 13-8.

Things got very chippy after that. That Bandits took two quick penalties (Vyse, then Kilgour) for roughing up Gee Nash. The Mammoth responded with three goals in just forty seconds. Prout struck first, cashing in a bad giveaway by Dietrich. Dan Stroup hammered home the next one from the edge of the crease, and Langtry quickly followed, swooping in alone to score on the counterbreak. At that point, Montour was once again summoned to replace Dietrich.

Up in Ottawa, the Buffalo Sabres scored an important goal in their Stanley Cup quarterfinal series against the Senators. The fans enthusiastically chanted "Let’s Go Sabres" as the final curtain came down on their lacrosse team.

For the final goal of the 2006 NLL season, Bonterre snagged a rebound off the backboards and beat Nash from the doorstep. The Mammoth played keepaway for the final minute-and-a-half, and then raced away happily with the NLL Champions Cup.

NOTES:

Perhaps it is fitting that, in this most balanced and least predictable of seasons, that the Colorado Mammoth should end up at the top of the professional box lacrosse mountain. When at last it really mattered, down to a single game on the road against a very good opponent, they finally and utterly dominated.

The Bandits just didn’t look ready. Tavares got hurt, Steenhuis was helpless for huge periods, and Dietrich had just about the offest of off nights. Even though they did, at one point, cut the deficit to just three goals, team discipline fell away to nothing, and the final verdict was both correct, and fair.

Thanks, everyone, for reading these game stories this year. On behalf of all Outsider’s Guide game reporters, I look forward to more joy, excitement and lots of surprises in 2007.

Signing off and standing down,

Ben Knight