Devils take senior lacrosse championship
The Westwood Pub Devils didn’t need to run the table while facing playoff elimination like they did last year when they dropped the first two games of the championship series and were left staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.
But they still found a way to blast the RPR Mechanical/JR Construction Bandits.
After losing the first game the Devils reeled off three straight victories in the best-of-five final series to win the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association championship.
They beat the favoured Bandits, a team that lost just two of 16 regular season games, ending their season with a 9-6 victory Wednesday night at Kin 1.
Colton Poulin did much of the damage offensively for the Devils with three goals and an assist and his sidekick Darian Long struck for two goals and two assists.
Jamie Bellamy was the Devils’ MVP throughout the playoffs and it was no different in the deciding game Wednesday.
The veteran goalie was sharp when he had to be and came up with timely saves that sapped the strength of the Bandits and their dynamic duo – Drew Doig and Cole Paciejewski.
Nursing a 9-6 lead late in the third period, Bellamy came up with several instances of highway robbery on Paciejewski, who averaged nearly 10 points per game this season.
He and Doig were in on half the goals the Bandits scored but thanks to Bellamy it wasn’t enough to derail the defending champs, who won the Dale Rolufs Memorial Trophy for the second-straight year.
He made 23 saves as the Bandits were outshot 39-29.
Westwood Pub led 3-0 after one period and easily could have been up by six but bounces three shots off the goalpost.
David Lawrence, whose third-period goal was the difference for the Devils in their 8-7 win in Game 3 on Monday, found the net first when he buried the ball from the slot 23 seconds in.
Playoff scoring leader Andrew Schwab wheeled out of the corner to double the lead with an unassisted effort, his 21st goal and 32nd point in just six games.
Long scored on a 4-on-3 power play for Westwood with six seconds left in the first period.
The Bandits were their own worst enemies at times, tossing the ball away in the offensive zone which stifled their forays into the Devils’ end of the floor.
They did test Bellamy with a handful of quality shots but for the most part he saw them coming and got his big body in the way.
Paciejewski played his second game of the series since returning to North American soil after playing for Scotland in the FIL world field lacrosse championship in Israel.
He assisted on a power-play goal from Justin Parker to get the Bandits on the board.
Not long after that, Doig showed why he won his second-straight league scoring championship.
He had Kyle Bloom draped all over him as he ran straight at the goal but still managed to deposit a one-handed shot in over Bellamy’s shoulder.
The Devils answered with two quick goals from Poulin to restore their three-goal lead.
The teams traded goals and Doig cut it to 6-5 with less than three minutes left in the period but the Nathanial McFayden replied for the Devils seven seconds later, beating goalie Liam Miller with a low shot after winning a footrace.
The Devils led 7-5 heading into the break.