Saskatchewan Rush look back on breakthrough season, run to Game 3 of NLL finals
Finishing the 2024-25 National Lacrosse League season one win shy of a league title and picking up the pieces following a 15-6 loss to the Buffalo Bandits.
'Definitely not how we expected things to go,' said Keenan post-game on Saturday. 'You know, it sucks. I thought we were ready for the moment.'
The Rush watched on as the Bandits raised the NLL Cup for the third year in a row on Saturday, falling in Game 3 of the best-of-three NLL championship series to see their season come to a heartbreaking end.
Trailing only by one goal 7-6 at halftime in Buffalo, the Rush struggled to contain the Bandits' lethal attack in the third quarter with the home side burying eight unanswered goals over the final two quarters to secure the three-peat.
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'Honestly it really came down to 30 minutes of them playing really, really well and us not playing very well,' said Rush co-head coach and general manager Derek Keenan on Tuesday.
'That's really what it came down to.'
It's a crushing end to the 2024-25 season for the Rush, who pushed Buffalo to a deciding third game in the series after a narrow 11-10 victory a week prior at SaskTel Centre in Game 2.
According to rookie forward Brock Haley, the team is taking some solace in the fact they pushed Buffalo to the brink and got to push their season into late May.
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'Everyone was just really excited to continue to have another week with the fellas,' said Haley. 'That was one thing we were preaching in the locker room, just play for another week with each other and that's what we did.
'We played until the last possible game we could. It didn't go our way, but that's sports.'
Despite the loss, it was a breakthrough season for Saskatchewan following a trio of 8-10 seasons dating back to 2022 and a playoff drought which stretched back to 2019 before the Rush returned to the post-season this spring with a 13-5 regular season.
2:07
Saskatchewan Rush stave off elimination with gutsy Game 2 victory in NLL Finals
What followed was a 13-9 quarter-final win over the Georgia Swarm, before sweeping the Halifax Thunderbirds in the second round which included one of the NLL's greatest last-minute comebacks in Game 2 to advance to the championship series against Buffalo.
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'I think I'm most proud about our resiliency throughout the year,' said Rush transition threat Jake Boudreau. 'We had a lot of games where we were down at (halftime) and came back, or the bounces weren't going our way and we always stayed in the fight. That's a great characteristic of our group.'
Five members of the Rush were celebrated with NLL year-end awards including Matt Hossack for league defensive player of the year, Frank Scigliano for goaltender of the year, co-head coach Jimmy Quinlan earning the Les Bartley Award for coach of the year, Derek Keenan winning GM of the year, and Keegan Bell picking up NLL teammate of the year honours.
Putting together the franchise's best season since winning it all in 2018, Haley said it was a memorable first year as a professional and one which proved doubters wrong.
'We were written off at the start of the year,' said Haley. 'I don't think anyone in the lacrosse world thought the Rush were going to be as good as we were, or even go to the finals. Just to kind of prove everybody wrong and show what we can do, and show that we're going to be here for the next five or 10 years.'
'We got a lot of young guys, we got a young core and we're hungry.'
Constructing a Rush championship dynasty in the mid-2010s, Keenan believes there are parallels between this group and the one which began knocking on the door of greatness over a decade ago.
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'Way back in 2012 when we were still in Edmonton, we had a 6-10 team actually that went to a final that year and lost to Rochester by a couple of goals,' said the Rush general manager.
'We were just building then and it's a little bit reminiscent of that, although I think we're way ahead of the curve on that one.'
Experiencing the pain of getting so close to their end goal, the Rush say it's a difficult lesson to learn losing the way they did in Game 3 to Buffalo.
However, it's a loss they feel will only lead to better days in the years to come.
'Now we know what it takes seeing Buffalo,' said defenceman Jerrett Smith. 'Obviously they've done it three times in a row, but I think we somewhat have the blueprint now and ideally we get back there.'
According to Keenan, the next steps will be determining the future of his role with an expiring contract as Rush general manager, as well as inking new contracts for the team's coaching staff.
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