Defence does the trick for Devils
The key to the success of the Westwood Pub Devils defending their Prince George Senior Lacrosse championship was their ability to limit the damage of the league’s two most prolific scorers. Drew Doig, with 105 points, and Cole Paciejewski, with 97, each had nearly double the point total of any other player in the league through 16 regular season games. Letting them run rampant in the best-of-five championship series would have been a suicide mission.
So who did the Devils turn to hound the RPR Mechanical/JR Construction Bandits’ most dangerous duo? Fifty-year-old Scott Anderson kept Paciejewski in his sights and veteran Kyle Bloom drew the assignment of shadowing Doig. Together they put the clamps on the two left-handed shooters.
In the fourth and deciding game Wednesday Doig was held to two goals and three assists while Paciejewski picked up four assists and went without lighting the lamp, after scoring 55 times in the 10 regular season games he played.
“Any time you’ve got a player like that you have to really get your matchups rights and Scotty took the bulk of the load this series,” said Devils goalie Jamie Bellamy, the playoff MVP, who made 32 saves in a 9-6 win Wednesday to claim the series 3-1.
“That’s a veteran guy and he knew exactly what Cole wanted to do and he managed to slow it up enough that it helps our team get the win.”
Anderson had help on the defensive end of the floor with Bloom, Kyle Adams, Shawn Ingham, Dalton McEntire, Dave Bennett and Josh Gillin lending their speed, strong positional play and crunching power to knock the Bandits off stride and limit the damage.
“I wasn’t sure what the outcome was going to be but we just kept getting stronger and stronger,” said Anderson, while cooling down on the Kin 1 floor after the game.
“I don’t know where it came from but me and Kyle Bloom got accidentally stuck on Doig and Paciejewski there and for some reason me and him clicked really well. It just felt natural to play 2-on-2 with those guys and we just rolled with it.
“We had to work pretty hard to do it, but the cohesiveness of me and Kyle working together was real easy to get.
“We both understood how we were going to play this and it took off from there.”
When the Bandits did get through to the Devils’ net, Bellamy was there to bail his team out.
He won all three games in the final series, replacing Steven Brizan, who took the loss in Game 1.
Bellamy’s spectacular glove save to deny Paciejewski with less than five minutes left the third period and the Devils nursing a three-goal lead left the 26-year-old goalie wondering how he was able react in time.
“That one was a highlight-reel one for sure,” said Bellamy.
“I just strung my hand out and I managed to get it, a little luck there. A goal there could turn the tide and it was a big momentumbuilder for us.
“I made some saves when it counted but they didn’t make me make too many, which was good. It was a couple of hardfought games, especially with Cole Paciejewski on the floor. Our guys had to work extra hard and it ended up we slowed him down enough that we could get some goals in the net.”
Colton Poulin scored four goals in Game 4 to lead the Devils.
He and Darian Long had great chemistry together on offence and it seemed whenever the Bandits were threatening to creep back into the game that combination would score a timely goal on a counter attack. Andrew Schwab’s goal and four assists Wednesday put him over the top as the top scorer in the playoffs with 21 goals and 15 assists for 36 points in six games.
After dropping Game 1 9-6, the Devils rallied to win Game 2 13-4, then beat the Bandits 8-7 in Game 3. They defended the title they wrested away from the Bandits last year when they rallied from being down two games to none to win the final series
“Jamie played great and that was the difference in the series,” said Bandits forward Jesse Huffman.
“Liam (Bandits goalie Miller) held us in it, but realistically with the firepower we have we shouldn’t be getting less than 10 goals per game. We had two periods with zero and two periods with two goals and that comes down to their aggressive play.”
Paciejewski missed the first two games of the series playing for Scotland in the FIL world field lacrosse championship in Israel. In that tournament he played eight games in eight days and had less than two days rest before he got back at it in the PGSLA final in Game 3 on Monday.
Playing or practicing twice a day the past three weeks took a toll on the 24-year-old this past week.
“We rely on him quite a bit but we can’t expect him to carry us,” said Doig.
“He’s put a lot of miles on those legs the last few weeks.”
I wasn’t sure what the outcome was going to be but we just kept getting stronger and stronger.
— Scott Anderson