Mark Steenhuis scored five goals and Mike Thompson made a dramatic last-second save as the Buffalo Bandits edged the Portland LumberJax, 14-13, Saturday night at HSBC Arena to claim the National Lacrosse League Champion's Cup.

The title is Buffalo's first since winning the North American Cup as Major Indoor Lacrosse League champion in 1996.

Since their last title, the Bandits have lost three times in the championship game, including a dismal 16-9 home loss to Colorado two years ago.

Perhaps underestimating Portland, as they were accused of doing against Colorado, the Bandits opened the game with the old hidden ball trick. The stunt worked, with John Tavares fooling the LumberJax defense, probably half the fans in attendance, and at least two ESPN cameramen in putting Buffalo ahead just 22 seconds in.

It took some time for the Bandits to create some separation on the scoreboard, with Bruce Alexander rumbling in to tie the game a minute and a half later and Peter Jacobs countering a bankhanded Brett Bucktooth goal for Buffalo.

The rest of the first quarter, though, was almost entirely Buffalo, with the Bandits scoring inside, outside, behind the back, and seemingly around the block -- Kevin Dostie twice, followed by singles from Roger Vyse and Steenhuis.

Popped by defender Ray Guze as he scored, Steenhuis popped back, in a flashback to more than a few wild Bandits games of the distant past; both players, as well as Portland's Mike Kilby, were sent off with unsportsmanlike conduct minors.

Goals by Brodie Merrill and Dan Dawson pulled Portland to within 6-5 midway through the second quarter, and an exchange of goals between Steenhuis and Dawson pushed the score to 7-6 moments later.

However, the ageless Tavares scored with 2:26 remaining in the first half -- snaking past pretty much the entire LumberJax team in the process -- and the youthful Steenhuis netted another goal 58 seconds later; at the half, Buffalo 9, Portland 6.

Much as they did in the second quarter, the LumberJax again rallied to within a goal by scoring the first two goals of the third quarter, Scott Stapleford and Peter Morgan scoring a minute apart.

Back came the Bandits, who never trailed in the game, Dostie and Mike Accursi quickly restoring the three-goal lead.

Portland scored three more times by the end of the quarter, but was countered twice by Buffalo goals and once by the end-of-period horn. Ryan Powell had the first two for the LumberJax, with Steenhuis cancelling the former and Billy Dee Smith wiping out the other on a shorthanded breakaway (moments after Tavares was stopped on his own breakaway).

Peter Morgan's goal in the final minute of the third quarter was followed by a pretty little Dawson goal to begin the fourth. The score was stuck on 13-12 until Steenhuis beat defender Brodie Merrill one-on-one and stormed in to score on goaltender (and long-ago Bandit) Matt Disher.

Disher played despite an sprained MCL in his knee, an injury suffered early in last week's win over Calgary. By the end of the game, Disher was still playing well (finishing with 27 saves on 41 shots faced) but appeared to be in pain and his limited mobility may have cost the LumberJax precious seconds every time he was pulled for an extra attacker in the closing minutes.

(Why Dallas Eliuk never appeared tonight, let alone had a chance to duplicate his fantastic performance of a week ago, could be the second-guess of the 2008 season, but we digress.)

Derek Malawsky brought Portland back within one with a six-on-five goal with 48 seconds left. The LumberJax got the ball back in the closing seconds and had just enough time for Jacobs to fire a fifteen-footer at Thompson, who came up with the Cup-clinching save as time expired.

"They had a great opportunity and Mike stopped it," Bandits head coach Darris Kilgour said. "That's the one everybody will remember but Mikey made just so many big saves for us all night long."

Judging solely from the statistics, Thompson was good but not outstanding, with 39 saves on 52 shots faced. However, he was arguably the difference in the game, making precisely the big saves Kilgour spoke of time and time again (read: pretty much any time Portland had a chance to tie the game).

"Towards the end there, I was getting a bit nervous because they had some glorious opportunities," Tavares said. "I think Mikey Thompson deserves a lot of credit for saving us at the end."

"[Thompson] absolutely shut the door when he had to and you can't give him enough credit," Kilgour added.

Despite Thompson's heroics, Steenhuis won Game MVP honors, tallying five goals and one assist for the Bandits. Accursi added a goal and four assists, while Dostie (3 goals, 1 assist) and Tavares (2 goals, 2 assists) had four points each.

Steenhuis wasn't close, though, to the game high in points; that distinction belongs to Dawson, who netted three goals and assisted on six others. In fact, Dawson and Powell (2 goals, 6 assists) combined to have a hand in every Portland goal except Alexander's early in the first quarter.