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Talk about a picture-perfect championship game.

Back-and-forth action, plenty of highlight-reel goals, big hits and some great defense in a title tilt that all came down to one last shot for the tie to force overtime with less than 30 seconds left to play.

Hate to harp on this point but didn’t many fans - especially ones whose teams played in the East Division - think this game was going to be a sham, a joke, a blowout by whichever club came out of the mighty East against the winner of the lowly West?

Instead, the No.-4 seed from the left coast gave the No.-1 seed Bandits all they could handle in front of a soldout crowd at HSBC Arena.

Turns out there is a reason for playoff games after all and we shouldn’t just declare a winner based on regular-season records. Lacrosse is a game of momentum and streaks and the LumberJax peaked at the right time heading into the post-season.

Now, some final thoughts from the Champion’s Cup final:

* Derek Keenan, I apologize. I thought it was a terrible move to hold on to rental players Dan Dawson (who had a stunning 31 points in three playoff games) and Derek Malawsky and not trade them for whatever you could get at the deadline. Of course, I was not alone. Every player, coach and GM I spoke to felt the same. So, essentially you were right, everyone else was wrong. You thought you had a team that could compete for the Cup this year and you went for it. In the end, you came up just two goals short. The NLL isn’t the NFL or MLB and franchises can’t always think long-term. You gambled and almost won. That said, the pressure is now squarely on you to fill some major holes on offense for next season and figure out how your team is going to score goals.

* Now, after apologizing for that, may I state my confusion on the decision to start Matt Disher over Dallas Eliuk. Disher was injured against Calgary and Eliuk came in and saved 35 of the 43 shots he faced, including a game-breaker on Tracey Kelusky whom he stoned at the top of his crease after No. 17 threw a handful of fakes on him. Instead of starting the hot hand, Keenan went with a guy who was hurt a week earlier and simply could not have been at 100%. Now, I’m not sure what happened behind closed doors and why Disher started but he ended up letting in some soft goals leaving Jax fans to wonder “what-if” had Eliuk started.

* What was up with ESPN having no replays for the first five minutes of the telecast. That was one long wait to see the John Tavares’ hidden-ball gem that opened the game’s scoring. Speaking of Tavares, the ageless one looked all of 18 and fleet of foot on the goal he scored when he deked and dodged through almost the entire Jax D to score a beauty later in the game.

* Congratulations, Kevin Dostie. One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet in the game, the diminutive creaseman scored three goals (including an uncharacteristic outside blast) to help the Bandits beat the Jax. The very definition of underrated, Dostie is clutch down low and has a penchant for scoring big goals as he displayed, yet again.

* Mark Steenhuis was named the NLL’s transition player of the year but the orange-shoed wonder is simply one of the best forwards in the game and plays the majority of his time now in the other team’s end. Hard not to consider him an offensive player when he had a team-high 17 shots (12 on goals) and led all Bandits scorers with five goals. Mike Accursi was next with six shots for Buffalo.

* Little know fact: Mike Thompson is an anagram for “Unbelievable goalie. Where did you find this guy?”

* The NLL is reportedly looking at adding as many as four teams next season. If that happens, kiss the word parity good-bye and get ready for a league full of haves and have-nots again. There are simply not enough high-caliber players, most notably goalies, for four new teams. Even two is pushing it. I’ve heard the argument there is enough players. It’s just not the case, in my opinion.

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