On a night when the Albany Attack proved beyond question they are a terrific lacrosse team, Colin Doyle fired a hat trick and light-scoring defender Darryl Gibson cashed in a pair of late breakaways as the Toronto Rock edged the Attack 13-12, at the Pepsi Arena on Saturday, claiming their third NLL Champions Cup in four seasons.

Josh Sanderson rocked the former Knickerbocker Arena with five goals for Albany, which led for most of the game, thrilling a vastly bigger than average crowd of 9,289.

Lots of action, but very few goals in the opening quarter. Drew Candy, of all people, got the Rock going when he stripped the ball from an Albany stick, snagged the loosie and roared in to beat Albany goalie Rob Blasdell four minutes in. Steve Toll made it 2-0 on a squibber at 8:38. At 11 minutes, Blasdell made a superb arm save after a heads-up pass from Blaine Manning sent Dan Stroup in home-free. Albany defender Jim Moss picked up a five-minute major slashing penalty late.

2-0 Rock after one.

Albany roared to the attack after the break, led by a pistol-hot Josh "Shooter" Sanderson. The Orangeville Ace bagged his first exactly a minute in, speeding outside and cutting in past the Toronto defence before stuffing one past Bob Watson. But suddenly the Attack were two men short, and Albany defenders committed a pair of blatant cough-ups in their own end. Both times, however, Blasdell was equal to the threats. Right at the end of the sequence, Colin Doyle finally notched a power-play goal with a step-in bomb from just off the crease.

Albany's Gary Rosyski cut the lead to 3-2 with a power-play 20-footer off Watson's arm. Then Sanderson cut loose with a natural hat trick. The first was a clean break created by two rapid-fire downfloor passes on the counterbreak. The second was a dazzler. Snagging a pump pass from Dan Teat at the corner of the crease, Josh froze Watson with a one-touch zipper to the far top corner. Number three was a largely optional 35-foot floating screen one-bouncer that served notice to all that Watson was far from being at his sharpest. 5-3, Albany, but Blaine Manning gets one back with a nice running stuff at 12:58.

5-4 Attack at halftime.

Two minutes in, Colin Doyle boinked one off the crossbar. The ball hit Blasdell in the leg, but was smothered before it could do any real damage. Albany then struck for two more to build a three-goal advantage. First, Nick Trudeau got away from Candy behind the net, then cut back in front to score at 3:22. Then Dan Teat cut across the middle and converted a deliciously subtle touch pass from Josh Sanderson at 6:28.

But Toronto was able to keep it close. Ken Millin converted a rebound off the backboard, cutting the lead to 7-5. Rock captain Jim Veltman appeared to sneak in a nice goal off the far post, but it was disallowed on a dubious crease call. Not to be dissuaded, burly Rock defender Dan Ladouceur snagged an Ian Rubel rebound off the glass, beating Blasdell at 10:10.

Dan Teat then got his second for Albany, staying beautifully hidden behind a furious double screen before beating Watson from way out. The Rock continued to prove that good defence can also be a great offence. Ladouceur bounced a cheeky backward pass to a streaking Rubel, who beat Blasdell on the breakaway at 12:48. With 30 seconds left, Laddy was also able to spring Steve Toll, but this time Blasdell was there for the save.

8-7 Albany, one quarter to go.

The final frame was a ten-goal thriller with many harrowing plot twists. Phil Sanderson got into the scoring action for Albany, putting the Attack up 9-7 on a breakaway just over a minute in. The Rock then rallied to tie the game on a Glenn Clark corner stuff and a 20-foot bag job from Colin Doyle.

Doyle then put Toronto back in front on a singularly brave piece of improvisational lacrosse. Ducking hard under a scything attempted slash, Toronto's leading goal-getter lunged low and forward to score from his knees. Dan Stroup then faked Blasdell completely out of his crease with a deftly executed shadow pass, scoring the easiest goal of the night into the yawning, abandoned cage. Mike Regan then rallied Albany, cutting the lead to 11-10 with a soft scoring lob from just inside the line.

Then the totally unexpected Darryl Gibson show began. Twice, at 6:10 and again at 11:04, the light-scoring ex-Attack defender took pump passes from Glenn Clark and scored for Toronto on breakaways. The book on Gibson is that this is how he scores all his goals. He had only scored three all season.

Down three goals with less than four minutes to play, Albany pushed forward with everything they had left. Mike Regan cut the deficit to 13-11, wicketing Watson from way out by the line at 12:13. Josh Sandeerson bagged his fifth at 14:09. It looked for all the world he had both feet in the crease, but the replay strongly suggested the goal was good.

But the tying marker never came, despite a sneaky behind-the-back effort from Gary Rosyski with 35 seconds left. The Attack kept up the pressure, and there was a huge scramble in and around the Toronto crease when the final buzzer sounded.

Notes: I take it all back, Attack fans. This is a dandy little lacrosse team. And while the relatively huge crowd was clearly bolstered by a few hundred roaring, road-weary Rock fans, the game was well attended, and the possibly thousands of first-time lacrosse fans were treated to a great contest, which should improve things if the Attack return to Albany next winter.

Albany contained Colin Doyle, stopped Kim Squire, hemmed in Dan Stroup, kept Steve Toll under control and caught Bob Watson on a bad night. But to the rescue came Drew Candy, Ian Rubel, Dan Ladouceur and an ecstatic Darryl Gibson, whose resume will now forever and ever contain the words "NLL championship-winning goal scorer."

And just in case this needs to be said, Toronto Rock owner Brad Watters was speaking purely for himself when he impetuously made a public demand that the game time be changed, or the contest moved back to Toronto. The real class of the Toronto Rock is found in its players, coaches and fans, many of whom were more than merely embarrased by Watters' childish, self-indulgent rants. I don't really mind him lobbying to improve things for his team behind the scenes. But doing such a sloppy job in public is an embarrasment.

Everything else about this game was delightful. Eight of the last nine NLL playoff games have been decided by a single goal. With any luck, this will be enough to save pro lacrosse in Albany. If not, if you never got here to see this city, enjoy this arena and thrill to this team, you definitely missed something.

Yours in lacrosse, signing off and standing down, I'm Ben Knight.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Toronto Rock (13-5, 2-0)              2  2  3  6  --  13
Albany Attack (15-3, 1-1)             0  5  3  4  --  12

TORONTO ROCK                  ALBANY ATTACK
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Manning        1 - 4     5    J Sanderson    5 - 5    10
Doyle          3 - 1     4    Rosyski        1 - 5     6
G Clark        1 - 2     3    Teat           2 - 3     5
Stroup         1 - 2     3    Regan          2 - 0     2
K Squire       0 - 3     3    Trudeau        1 - 1     2
Gibson         2 - 0     2    Beisel         0 - 2     2
Rubel          1 - 1     2    P Sanderson    1 - 0     1
Candy          1 - 0     1    Blasdell       0 - 1     1
Millin         1 - 0     1    Cochrane       0 - 1     1
Toll           1 - 0     1    Woods          0 - 1     1
D Ladouceur    1 - 0     1    
Chapman        0 - 1     1    

Shots on goal           55    Shots on goal           49
Saves made by           37    Saves made by           42
   Watson                        Blasdell

   *** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH ALBANY ATTACK ***

Ben Knight is the lacrosse columnist for Sportsnet.ca