This was the final blow, but not the fatal one. No matter what the Albany Attack did, it wouldn't have been good enough.

The Attack's inaugural season ended Saturday night with a 15-13 loss to the Buffalo Bandits before a crowd of 5,428 at Pepsi Arena. Even if Albany had prevailed, Rochester's 20-14 victory over Philadelphia would have kept the Attack out of the National Lacrosse League's four-team playoffs. The only way Albany could have made the playoffs was with a win Saturday, combined with a Philadelphia win over Rochester.

Neither end of that equation held up. That, though, didn't provide the Attack's players with any feeling of consolation.

"None at all. We had a job to do and we didn't do it," said captain Darris Kilgour, who had one goal and three assists against the Bandits, for whom two of his brothers play. "And no matter how that Rochester game came out, it wouldn't feel any better."

Added Attack forward John Rosa, who even tried telling teammates during the fourth quarter that Philadelphia was beating Rochester: "To exceed the expectations of an expansion team, and then come up a little short, it's a hard pill to swallow."

Albany's first season ended with a 6-6 record, one game better than the 5-7 mark Philadelphia posted last season while earning a playoff berth. Buffalo finished the regular season at 8-4, and swept two meetings with the Attack.

Ted Dowling, who played with an injured and heavily taped right knee, led Albany with three goals and five assists and finished the season with a team-best 67 points. Troy Cordingley, Dallas Squire and Bruce Codd all had two goals for Albany.

Playing without Josh Sanderson (the 64-point scorer whose MRI on Friday revealed a complete tear of his left anterior cruciate ligament), the Attack struggled to find their groove in the game's early stages. Albany led 3-2 late in the first quarter after a goal by Rosa, but Buffalo scored five of the game's next six goals and never trailed at any point in the final three quarters.

"Considering some of the injuries we had, I thought we battled hard," Attack coach Terry Sanderson said. "There were some untimely goals that went against us and we just seemed to be fighting back all the time. We'd get so close, then we'd be down again. But we said we would compete every night, and I thought we gave another good effort out there, but it wasn't enough."

Albany closed to within one goal of Buffalo on two occasions in the fourth quarter, the second of which came on a Squire goal with 4:59 remaining. But with the Attack swarming the net at every opportunity in search of the tying goal, Buffalo exploited that aggression with two breakaway goals, and even added an empty-net tally in the final seconds.

"We feel any team making the playoffs could win the championship this year," Dowling said. "We just wanted to be that team."

BOX SUMMARY
                                  1  2  3  4     TOT
Buffalo Bandits (8-4)             3  5  2  5  --  15
Albany Attack (6-6)               3  2  3  5  --  13

BUFFALO BANDITS               ALBANY ATTACK
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Williams       2 - 4     6    Dowling        3 - 5     8
Prat           1 - 5     6    Cordingley     2 - 2     4
D Malawsky     3 - 2     5    D Kilgour      1 - 3     4
Tavares        3 - 2     5    D Squire       2 - 1     3
Accursi        2 - 1     3    John Rosa      1 - 2     3
Lopez          2 - 1     3    Codd           2 - 0     2
Sweet          1 - 2     3    Rosyski        0 - 2     2
R Kilgour      0 - 2     2    P Sanderson    0 - 2     2
T Kilgour      1 - 0     1    Woods          1 - 0     1
Catton         0 - 1     1    Gibson         0 - 1     1
Hochstadt      0 - 1     1    
Seller         0 - 1     1    

Shots on goal           57    Shots on goal           64
Saves made by           51    Saves made by           42
   Disher                        Blasdell
Power Play Chances       4    Power Play Chances       6
Power Play Goals         4    Power Play Goals         2

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH ALBANY TIMES-UNION ***