I know the script writers thought that a Calgary-Buffalo final would make a great story with Steve Dietrich, Kyle Couling, and coach Troy Cordingly making their returns to the place where they played for so many years but Dan Dawson,  Brodie Merrill and coach Derek Keenan had other plans. And why not? Dawson and Merrill are two of the NLL’s marquee players and even though its been over 15 years since he played there, Portland Coach Keenan started his NLL career as a Buffalo Bandit as well. Here are a few observations on Saturday’s games.

Portland 16  Calgary 12

Can anyone handle Dan Dawson? He’s got 22 points in two playoff games after scoring 10 on Saturday. In fact he was relatively quiet in the second half picking up  7 points on Portland’s 8 goals in the first half.

Not a bad Rally. After a strong third quarter Calgary took their first lead of the game early in the 4^th quarter, only to have Portland score 6 goals in 5 minutes to blow the game away.

Fourth quarter problems. All year we talked about Calgary’s poor 4^th quarters. They were outscored 7-3 in the 4^th.

Ryans Powell’s Favorite  Quarter. What’s with Ryan Powell and the late game heroics? All 8 of his playoff goals have been scored in the second half and in each game he has scored a hat trick in the 4^th.

Lucky number 43. When Portland staring goalie Matt Disher got hurt early  in the 2^nd quarter, 43-year-old Dallas Eliuk put in a pretty good relief job, playing 43 minutes and facing  43 shots.

Buffalo 19  New York 12

Tavares gets 12 points. It’s hard to believe how good John Tavares is.  Most players would love it if their peak years could be anywhere close to his “declining” years. At 39 he still dominates.  Who know how long he can play.

The Curse of Accursi.  Talk about peaks and valleys. Mike Accursi went from penthouse in Rochester to a 0-6 start in Edmonton before being traded back to the Bandits where his playoff heroics have helped the Bandits get back to the championships.

Who’s your number 1 goalie?  I admit it. I thought that Buffalo’s Achilles heal would be their goaltending after trading away Dietrich. Never did I imagine that coach Kilgour would feel comfortable with both tenders this late in this season.

Speaking of goaltending. Although shot totals don’t always tell the real story, this is one game that the goaltending made a difference. Matt Vinc could not handle the outside shots – especially from Steenhuis and allowed 15 goals on only 30 shots. It is a shame because he had played so well down the stretch for the Titans.

Air Gait. I’m not sure I like this year’s rule change to allow the Air Gait goals. There was a time in the Canadian league that you could do the Air Gait so long as your stick didn’t touch the net or goaltender.  The only guys who scored on it were the Gaits, Tavares and Darris Kilgour. No offence to Billy D. Smith (who scored a nice one on Saturday), but it just seems to easy now.

Game gets nasty. It’s hardly newsworthy that a game involving the Bandits almost got out of hand with a bit of ugliness. What’s newsworthy is the fact that the Bandits were not the instigators. 

I’m repeating myself but… isn’t ironic that out of Buffalo’s 65 penalty minutes, Billy D. only had 2 and he scored one of the prettiest goals in the game?

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