No contest!
That summed up this year’s Prince George Senior Lacrosse Finals’ opener as the Westwood Pub Devils, convincingly, began their bout for a third straight league championship with a 21-6 win over the Northland Nissan Assault.
The 15-goal margin gives the Devils an early 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series courtesy of a six-goal breakout performance by Pierce Watson, who recorded a hat-trick in each of the first two periods.
Devils’ Jake McIntosh recorded a game-high 11 points in the Game One contest Tuesday night (July 16) with three goals and eight assists.
Teammate Andrew Schwab also got a hatty at Kin 1 Arena in the middle frame; he hit the netting one more time in the third and added six assists for a total of 10 points.
Goaltender Patrick Bayliss made 34 saves on 40 shots, while Kyle Frederick and Russil Mills of the Assault shared netminding duties and faced a combined 48 shots.
Northland Nissan Captain Doug Porter was the top performer for his team with three points (one goal, two assists) and Forward Mathew Rochon had two goals of his own to lead the playoff-scoring race at 19 points (13 goals, six assists) in only three games.
Westwood enjoyed a first intermission lead of 7-1, which included three goals in a 53-second span and a marker on the lone power-play of the night from Mitch Schultz.
After Frederick was replaced by Mills to start the second stanza, the Assault would get as close as 10-4 before the potted six unanswered goals in under eight minutes.
The Devils outscored the Assault 5-2 in the final period to seal the deal and are two wins away from hoisting the Dale Rolufs Memorial Trophy.
Game Two is scheduled for tomorrow night (July 18), 8 p.m. from Kin 1 Arena.
Game Three is slated for Monday (July 22) at the same time.
