Curtis Palidwor made 41 saves Friday night, including fifteen in the fourth quarter, as the Calgary Roughnecks won the NLL Champion's Cup with a 14-11 victory over the visiting Buffalo Bandits.

A capacity-and-then-some crowd of 19,289 was on hand at the Pengrowth Saddledome to witness the Roughnecks' first championship, just three years after the team was born.

What they witnessed in the first period looked a lot more like the Bandits' fourth coronation in thirteen seasons.

Taylor Wray, named this week as the NLL's Rookie of the Year, took a very early holding penalty, and John Tavares, the eternal Bandit, made him pay with a power play goal just 51 seconds into the game.

Exactly two minutes later, with Grant Hamilton sitting down for a cross-check, Mike Accursi made it 2-0... and the Roughnecks had not yet managed a shot on goal.

Ted Dowling soon put Calgary on the board, but it was all Buffalo the rest of the period, Mark Steenhuis at 9:38 and Neal Powless and 12:02.

The Roughnecks woke up in the second quarter, running off six straight goals for a 7-4 lead. Dowling started the run with a man-up goal at 1:38, and Kaleb Toth finished it off more than nine minutes later.

Only a goal by Tavares, at 11:54, prevented the Riggers from recording a whitewash in the second.

The third period similarly belonged to Calgary. Hamilton got the ball rolling at 2:29, followed just seconds later by Brad MacArthur.

After an Accursi goal at mid-quarter, the Roughnecks ran off another two goals, from Andrew McBride and Lewis Ratcliff, for an 11-6 lead with seventeen and a half minutes to play.

Seemingly unimportant at the time, Pat McCready recorded a goal in the final seconds of the quarter, cutting Calgary's lead to four goals.

That goal turned out to be critical, however, as Buffalo dominated the early going in the fourth quarter. Accursi and Jonas Derks scored early, then McCready pulled the Bandits to within one, 11-10, at 8:11.

Just as it appeared that Palidwor might be losing his grip on the game, Jesse Phillips struck unassisted for Calgary at 8:55, restoring the two-goal advantage.

Tavares cut it back to a one-goal game again with 2:34 remaining, but Tracey Kelusky, held thus far to just an assist, buried a feed from Tyson Leies and the Riggers' lead was again two.

Phillips, whose goal moments earlier would stand up as a the game-winner, finished off a hat trick by scoring an empty-netter with three seconds and change left.

Ratcliff also recorded a hat trick for Calgary, but the leading scorers were Dowling (two goals, three assists) and Toth (one goal, four assists).

Tavares led the Bandits with three goals and three assists. Accursi added three goals and an assist.

NOTES:

In a scene way too reminiscient of last year's regular season finale between these two clubs, Calgary's Tyson Leies plowed into Buffalo goaltender Steve Dietrich about midway through the second quarter. In last year's incident, a Leies blow concussed Dietrich, keeping him out of the teams' quarterfinal meeting a week later; tonight, Dietrich got back up and played the rest of the game.

Dowling, who would've made a fine Game MVP choice if not for Palidwor, will now retire. "I couldn't ask for a better way to go out. It's everything I could have hoped for," Dowling said after the game. "I had my brother [Jeff, the Roughnecks' assistant coach] on the bench with me and my wife and family in the crowd... and we did it."

Leies also retired with this win, saying afterwards, "I'm done. The body can't take it anymore and I'm just going to savor this win."

Tonight's game was the first in the playoffs this season won by the home team. Calgary and Buffalo each won twice away from home to reach the championship game.

The announced crowd of 19,289 was the second-largest in NLL history, trailing only the 2001 Champion's Cup Final, which drew 19,409 to Air Canada Centre.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
E3 Buffalo Bandits (10-9, 2-1)        4  1  2  4  --  11
W3 Calgary Roughnecks (13-6, 3-0)     1  6  4  3  --  14

BUFFALO BANDITS               CALGARY ROUGHNECKS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Tavares        3 - 3     6    Dowling        2 - 3     5
Accursi        3 - 1     4    Toth           1 - 4     5
Crosbie        0 - 4     4    Ratcliff       3 - 1     4
Steenhuis      1 - 2     3    Phillips       3 - 0     3
Shannon        0 - 3     3    Goundrey       1 - 2     3
McCready       2 - 0     2    Kelusky        1 - 1     2
Powless        1 - 1     2    Leies          0 - 2     2
Derks          1 - 0     1    Hamilton       1 - 0     1
Dietrich       0 - 1     1    MacArthur      1 - 0     1
                              McBride        1 - 0     1
                              Gelsvik        0 - 1     1
                              Wulder         0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           52    Shots on goal           59
Saves made by (GA)      45    Saves made by (GA)      41
   Dietrich (13)     45          Palidwor (11)     41
   TEAM (1)           0
Penalties                8    Penalties                9
Penalty Minutes         16    Penalty Minutes         18
Power Play Chances       5    Power Play Chances       4
Power Play Goals         3    Power Play Goals         3
   Accursi            2          Dowling            1
   Tavares            1          Ratcliff           1
                                 Toth               1
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        0
Loose Balls             87    Loose Balls             90
   Steenhuis         14          Ratcliff          11
   McCready          12          T Wray            10
   Tavares            8          Palidwor           8
                                 Phillips           8
                                 Toth               8
Faceoffs Won             9    Faceoffs Won            20
   R Kilgour    ( 8-14)          MacArthur    (10- 6)
   Accursi      ( 1- 5)          Kirkby       ( 9- 3)
   Langdale     ( 0- 1)          T Wray       ( 1- 0)

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH CALGARY ROUGHNECKS ***