The Westwood Pub Devils relied on some young legs to slip past the youthful Quesnel Crossfire in Game One of the Prince George Senior Lacrosse playoffs at Kin 1.
Key goals from Kyler Boucher and Colton Poulin late in the third period propelled the home side to a 12-10 victory for a 1-0 best-of-three series lead.
UPDATE Tuesday night:
In the other semi-final series, the RPR Mechanical/BX Pub Bandits outscored the Co-op Petroleum Stylers 15-8.
Poulin says he enjoyed the pace of the game and the deep bench of the Devils.
“It was a nice hard fought game with a lot of people here tonight, it’s always nice having a full bench when you have team that was cooking tonight like we were and it was a fun game to play.”
The Devils needed just nine seconds to draw first blood on Quesnel netminder Thomas Reistad, who allowed three quick goals in the first five minutes.
Once the game drew closer in the final two frames, Poulin says you could cut the tension with a knife.
“Going back and forth at that intensity makes it a pretty fun game and great to play against them.”
The Crossfire enjoyed a two-goal advantage with six minutes left in the third period, and then the Devils seemingly shifted into another gear and potted the final four markers.
Poulin gives Quesnel a lot of credit.
“They are a really good young team and over the coming years they have found some good players and coaching coming up and showing that they can play in this league and going places from Quesnel. It’s nice playing against them.”
One of the heroes for the Devils was Boucher, who potted two goals in the victory and his game-changing speed created a lot of chances off the rush.
Monty Jones ended up being leading scorer for Westwood thanks to a five point effort.
The Devils also received an offensive contribution from Scott Anderson with two goals and one assist.
Brody Lawlor led the Crossfire in scoring with four points in defeat.
Dusty Cathcart, Chase Ballendine, JT Moore, Hunter McSeveny, and Garth Kennedy picked up three points each in a losing effort.
Game Two is Wednesday night at 8 in Quesnel.