The road goes through the defending champions in the National Lacrosse League.

The Saskatchewan Rush secured their third straight trip to the NLL Champion’s Cup final series with an 11-10 win over the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday at a raucous SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

The win gave Saskatchewan a two-game sweep of the Mammoth and a chance to go for the third straight championship.

“That was a tough series,” said Rush forward Ben McIntosh. “Colorado, they’re really good and (Dillon) Ward really great and they played hard tonight, so it feels good to get that win, move on and avoid that 10-minute mini-game too.”

The Rush have been almost unbeatable at SaskTel Centre this season, losing just once during the regular season and they use the energy in the building again to help them capture the West Division title.

Saskatchewan received just enough offence and played some stellar defence throughout Saturday’s Game 2, coming up with some key blocked shots, especially in the final minutes as the Mammoth pushed for an equalizer.

“It’s hard not to get carried away sometimes because the fans are just going nuts, but you’ve got to just stay focus and stay calm and just focus on the next thing on hand,” said Rush rookie Mike Messenger, who scored the eventual game-winning goal just 1:26 into the fourth quarter.

Messenger scooped up a loose ball in the defensive zone and rumbled on the attack, bulling over a Mammoth defender before delaying and beating Ward to make it an 11-8 game at that point.

“I thought I could take him one-on-one and then I turned around and saw he was on the ground, so I had a chance for a goal and I just kept going,” said Messenger.

“Mess is an absolute animal,” added McIntosh. “The whole bench erupts, everyone’s level goes through the roof, so those plays are huge and that’s why we’ve had a lot of success is because we have a ton of (defensive) guys like Jeff (Cornwall), Messenger and (Chris) Corbeil that can do that.”

The game was a defensive struggle in the first half with the two sides battling to a 4-4 draw at halftime. It was back-and-forth in the third quarter with the Rush taking a 9-8 advantage thanks to goals from Mark Matthews and Robert Church in the final three minutes of the frame.

Ryan Keenan and Messenger, two first round picks in the 2017 NLL Draft, gave the Rush all the momentum early in the fourth quarter, scoring two goals under a minute apart to make it a three-goal game.

The Mammoth battled back with goals from Jacob Ruest and Jeremy Noble later in the fourth, but the Rush held the fourth over the final 4:34 to seal the win.

“We hung in and (Aaron) Bold played real good all night and defensively we were good, we really paid the price near the end, we blocked shots and didn’t really give them a lot on that last possession,” said Head Coach Derek Keenan.

Matthews led the way offensively for the Rush with two goals and six points, while Church also potted two goals and had five points. McIntosh scored twice as well and finished with three points.

Bold made 32 saves for the win in goal, while the Rush threw 48 shots on Ward at the other end.

“We have all the confidence in the world in Boldy, especially in these games, he’s never seemed to let us down in these games,” said McIntosh. “He’s a great goaltender, we know what we got back there and we can build from there.”

Saskatchewan will now get a week off to re-cooperate before taking on the Georgia Swarm, who won the East Division title with a 13-9 win over the Toronto Rock on Saturday.

The Rush lost their only meeting of the season with the Swarm, falling 18-10 on the road in the first game of the regular season back on Jan. 7.

“We know it’s going to be tough, in the first game of the season they put 18 on us, but we don’t expect that to happen, we’ve been pretty solid defensively and goaltending wise down the stretch here,” said Keenan. “We’ve really played shutdown the latter part of the season and that’s what we’re going to need to do there.”

The Rush head to Georgia for Game 1 against the Swarm on June 4. Game 2 will be at SaskTel Centre on June 10 and if necessary, Game 3 will be back in Georgia on June 18.