It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
The Westwood Pub Devils made sure that rung true on Tuesday as they paced themselves to a 7-5 victory over the RPR Mechanical/BX Pub Bandits capturing the Dale Roulfs Trophy.
The Devils stormed back from a 2-0 series deficit in the best-of-five matchup three games to two at Kin 1.
Spencer Ovendin, Darrian Long (2), and Colton Poulin scored in the opening frame for the Devils who enjoyed period leads of 4-0 and 7-4.
In the middle frame, Drew Doig put the Bandits on his back by scoring all four of his team’s markers, including a highlight reel behind the back shot that beat Devils goaltender Jamie Bellamy.
Despite several chances at both ends in the third, only Brett Doig found the back of the net cutting the deficit to a pair of goals, but the Bandits did not get any closer.
We caught up with Bellamy during the post-game celebrations who explained what the biggest difference was for his team in the final three games. “I think we finally hit our stride, we started sinking shots that we were not sinking in the first two games and our defense obviously tightened up.”
Bellamy believes the Devils strength numbers over the past three games played a major role in the comeback. “We really, really stressed to our guys to book off this series and make these games, and you could see just by tonight (Tuesday) we had 13 or 14 guys and I’ll take that every night, and it’s the same thing for them as they are struggling with numbers due to the wildfires.”
The playoff MVP was awarded to 49-year old Scott Anderson who asserted his offensive touch in the last three games notching 4 goals and 3 assists during that span.
“He’s the heart and soul of this team,” says Bellamy. “He was coaching the team at the beginning of the year and he decided to step down because he can be a little bit of a hard ass and wasn’t feeling he was contributing enough that way and decided to turn it around and hit the floor.”
The collapse by the Bandits is of shocking proportions after outscoring the Devils 31-15 in the first two games only to be outscored the rest of the way by a 25-15 margin.
A short-handed bench contributed to their demise as players like Cole Paciejewski, Jesse Huffman and Brock Paciejewski missed all or a large chunk of the series.
Drew Doig was also kept in check after his stellar 13 point performance in Game 2.
He only notched 12 points in the final three games, which is a far cry from his torrid 47 point pace over the first four playoff games played.
Both teams now look ahead to the Senior C Provincials taking place in Prince George from August 11 to 13 from Kin 1 and 2.
The first game for the Devils is at 11 am next Friday against the Ladner Pioneers from Kin 2 while the Bandits suit up against the Coquitlam Adanacs at the same time at Kin 1.
Other teams competing in the tournament are the Airdrie Mohawks, Port Moody Express, Quesnel Crossfire, Fraser Valley Mission Cedar Kings, Saanichton, the North Shore Indians and the Co-op Petroleum Stylers.