A strong start and a controlling finish gave Buffalo some hardware.

Buffalo went up early and tacked on more in a 3-0 win over Bloomington Jefferson Friday in the Schwan’s Cup Silver Division championship at Ridder Arena.

Allisen Carothers scored in the first period for the Bison, and Raegan Wurm and Julia McAlpin added goals in the third. Kennedy Sohler stopped 23 shots in the shutout.

Buffalo (10-5-1, 3-2-1) needed overtime in the tournament's semifinal to beat Delano/Rockford 3-2 and earn a shot at Jefferson in the title game — the Bison lost at home to the Jaguars 2-1 Nov. 24.

Buffalo controlled the first period, outshooting Jefferson 17-4. Carothers opened the scoring with an unassisted goal, taking a lap around the Jaguar net before circling back to the right circle and beating Mara McClain with a wrist shot at the 4:42 mark.

McClain made 32 saves for Jefferson.

Jefferson (6-8-2, 0-1) found some momentum in the second period, helped by a couple of power-play opportunities. The Jaguars outshot the Bison 11-6 in the second.

The Bison got off to a fast start in the third, and finally broke through for two goals to seize control. Wurm put away a rebound with 10 minutes, 26 seconds gone in the period, and McAlpin scored on a backdoor tap-in from Emma Carlson for a power-play goal at the 13:32 mark.

“We talked about after the second period, not many teams get to play for two championships in one year, [so] as long as we’re here,” Buffalo coach Dave Carothers said. “We got beat by Bloomington Jefferson at our own house earlier in the year, so I said we owe them one.”

It all made for a nice finish to 2018 for Buffalo.

“I wanted to use this weekend to play around with some lines, but also to springboard us coming out of the Christmas break, and hopefully go after the conference championship, which, we’ve got some work to do there,” Carothers said.