Robert Church Leads Saskatchewan Rush Into Buffalo Bandits Rematch After 10-1 Start
Robert Church and the Saskatchewan Rush head to a rematch with the buffalo bandits this week as part of a New York road trip that includes games on back-to-back nights. The matchup matters because Church has powered a Rush team riding a 10-1 start and a nine-game win streak, and his recent milestones frame the encounter as more than a single regular-season game.
Robert Church's Milestones and On-Field Impact
Now in his 12th NLL season, Church has reached 951 career points, moving past Mark Matthews’ franchise mark of 949. The total spans his time with the Edmonton and Saskatchewan iterations of the Rush, and it follows a five-point outing in Saskatchewan’s 14-6 victory over the Philadelphia Wings that extended the club’s win streak to nine games.
Church’s durability has been a throughline: he became the Rush’s all-time leader in games played during the season-opening victory over the Calgary Roughnecks, and he has now spent more than a decade with the organization. Teammate Jimmy Quinlan acknowledged the milestone with a game ball after the Philadelphia game, underscoring the internal recognition of Church’s longevity and production.
Those numbers have real effect on the Rush’s results. In the Wings game the team overcame an early 3-0 deficit and erupted for 10 second-half goals to secure the 14-6 win, a pattern the Rush have repeated several times this season when facing early pressure. Church described that dynamic as teams coming out at a pace they cannot sustain, forcing Saskatchewan to weather an early storm before asserting control.
Buffalo Bandits Rematch at KeyBank Center
The visit to KeyBank Center marks Saskatchewan’s first trip there since last season’s NLL Finals, when the Rush fell in a game-three heartbreaker to Buffalo. That finals rematch is scheduled for Friday on the Rush’s current road swing through New York, which features consecutive nights of competition and a schedule that will test depth and recovery routines.
The Rush’s early-season pattern—starting slowly against opponents who bring intense opening pressure and then pulling away—creates a direct tactical cause-and-effect heading into the KeyBank Center matchup. Because the Rush sit near the top of the standings, teams have been elevating their opening pace specifically to challenge them; in turn, Saskatchewan has increasingly relied on second-half surges, led by Church and other core contributors, to translate early resistance into wins.
What makes this notable is how those come-from-behind performances have coincided with individual records: Church’s franchise scoring mark and games-played milestone have both taken shape amid the team’s collective run. The timing matters because the rematch with the Buffalo Bandits arrives at a point when momentum and historical context intersect, turning a single matchup into a potential measuring stick for the Rush’s trajectory.
Coaching and roster continuity also play a role. Church credited staying healthy and remaining with one franchise for his ability to accumulate career totals, and the Rush’s capacity to overturn early deficits suggests a roster built to sustain pressure late into games. The back-to-back-night schedule in New York will further illuminate whether that resilience holds up under compressed conditions.
For Buffalo, the finals victory last season and the game-three result in the postseason add stakes to Friday’s meeting. For Saskatchewan, the rematch offers a chance to test whether a 10-1 start and nine straight wins reflect a peak or the start of a deeper run—one in which Church’s scoring and experience will be central.
