The Westwood Pub Devils are now three wins away from hoisting the Dale Rolufs Memorial Trophy for the third year in a row.
The defending back-to-back champions claimed a 10-6 win last night (July 11) against the RPR Mechanical/JR Construction Bandits and their best-of-three semi-final series 2-1 to advance to the Prince George Senior Lacrosse finals for a fourth straight season.
After dropping Game Two Tuesday night (July 9), the Devils stood their ground, survived a brief second-period scare, and never surrendered a lead in the deciding match at Kin 1 Arena.
They enjoyed intermission leads of 4-1 and 7-4 en route to the victory.
The B’s came as close as one goal in the contest, which was early in the second period when they made it 4-3 courtesy of Cole Paciejewski and Drew Doig’s strong offensive push.
However, Devils’ Andrew Schwab was the difference in Game Three with his playmaking abilities, recording a game-high six points that included four assists and two goals.
Jake MacIntosh was perhaps the break-out player of the evening, scoring four goals for the Devils, the most of any other player on the scoresheet; he potted 10 goals in just three regular-season games as an affiliated player for the team.
Paciejewski had a hat-trick night for the Bandits, adding one assist for a team-high four points.
Bandits goaltender Dalan Etter had a slightly busier night than Patrick Bayliss on the other side of the box, making 39 saves in his team’s final game of the year.
Bayliss had 36 stops from the designated home team in lifting his Devils to the Finals.
With the Devils’ series clincher, the 2019 Prince George Senior Lacrosse Finals will pin them against the Northland Nissan Assault in a best-of-five bout.
The Assault won their semi-final series 2-0 over the Mackenzie Lumberjacks on Monday (July 8), so they earned a longer period of rest.
Game One between the two remaining clubs is slated for Tuesday, July 16.
All Finals matches will start at 8 p.m. from Kin 1 Arena.
