In the end, it came down to a close shave for the Claude's Barber Shop/BX Pub Bandits.
With eight minutes left Wednesday night at Kin 1 they were tied 5-5 with the Westwood Pub Devils in Game 3 of the best-of-five Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association championship series.
But with two whips of his stick, Cole Paciejewski snuffed the life out of the Devils. Paciejewski's two goals, 34 seconds apart, led to an 8-5 win for the Bandits and their first championship in four years.
"Halfway through the third when it was all tied it was pretty intense but we knew if we kept working hard it was our game for the taking," said Paciejewski, 22, picked to play for Scotland next week at the European field lacrosse championship in Budapest, Hungary.
"It really wasn't working for me all game, my shots were missing the net, but I knew with 10 minutes left and the game tied I had to figure something out. It was crunch time so it felt pretty good to put those in."
Paciejewski put all of his five-foot-eight, 160-pound might into a sidearm shot which beat Devils goalie Jamie Bellamy for the winner, 12:04 into the third period, and scored his second of the game not long after that from close range. Damon Calfa added an insurance marker late in the game to seal the deal.
Paciejewski finished the game with two goals and three assists.
The Bandits fought back from a 5-2 deficit in the second period to tie the game and Paciejewski, the playoff MVP, had a hand in two of those goals, assisting on Brandon Gordon's marker with 4:41 left in the middle frame and setting up Jesse Huffman for the equalizer, 3:11 before the second intermission.
The Bandits capped a near-perfect season with their three-game sweep of the Devils. They dispatched the Northland Nissan Assault in a two-game semifinal series after winning the regular-season title with a 14-1 record.
They ended the Devils' 41-game PGSLA win streak, defeating them in all three regular-season meetings, followed by three straight playoff victories.
"We put everything together this year and it feels good to be back on top," said Bandits defenceman Ryan Waddington. "Cole is absolutely unreal, he's MVP for a reason. He's on our team and we love every minute of it because there's no way I'd want to play against that kid.
"The Devils put everything out there they had and we had to take that game from them, they weren't going to give it to us. Every game in this series there was 'no die' attitude on that team and that's the way the Devils play. They never quit."
Bandits veteran Brett Doig, 48, first announced his retirement from lacrosse in 2010, when the Bandits beat the Assault the last time they won the league before this year, but he keeps coming back to the game.
Doig returned to the Bandits this year, after one year on the sidelines, to play with his son Drew and he's glad he did.
"I don't know how many we've won but no matter how many you've won you want to win more and this one was awesome," said Brett.
"This was a bonus one for me, I didn't think I'd be playing any more and to be able to play with kids again is awesome.
"Our defence played stellar again and Jonny (17-year-old Bandits goalie Wittmeier) held us in there. The score was tied with 10 minutes left and we gutted it out and got the win. It's a real testament to P.G. Minor Lacrosse that Jonny and Doug Porter, the rookie of the year (who plays for the Cowboy Ranch Stylers), can step in and play such a big role on their teams. Our other goalie, Liam Miller, got goalie of the year, so we're pretty much set with two good young goalies."
The Devils were left to wonder what might have happened if they had found a way to win Wednesday.
Had they extended the series and pushed it into next week, they would have had the services of Blake McIntosh, their leading scorer, back from his commitments as a minor lacrosse coach.
With Bandits sniper Paciejewski off to Europe, the Devils' hopes of a PGSLA threepeat would have still been intact.
Devils forward Scott Anderson, 48, says his team did the job defensively tying up the Bandits but struggled to put the ball in the net.
It didn't help they were without McIntosh, who picked up 70 points in 15 regular-season games, throughout the final series.
Third periods were the Devils' nemesis. They were outscored a cumulative 12-3 in the final 20 minutes of the three games.
"It was tough - they were fired up and they came out to play and we were missing a few guys but that's not any excuse, we were just trying to dig as deep as we could to pull off a win and we couldn't seem to get that third period under control," said Anderson.
"Our defence held them to under 10 goals in the last two games, which should have been good enough to win, but our offence, we just didn't seem to have it. Their goalie really came on strong and we couldn't put the ball in at the right time. Their D limited our chances."
The Bandits won't have enough players able to travel to Port Moody to challenge for the provincial senior C championship and the Fred Doig Cup next month, but the Devils do plan to go and are allowed to pick three players from other PGSLA rosters to fortify their team.
