Jamie Bellamy was feeling like a sieve in the warmup and his Westwood Pub Devils teammate Steven Brizan wasn't any more successful stopping shots.
The frustration Bellamy felt before the opening face-off against the Cowboy Ranch Stylers Wednesday at Kin 1 turned to elation by game's end when he realized every lacrosse goaltender's dream. He got a shutout.
Bellamy stopped all 29 shots to stonewall the Stylers 20-0 in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association contest, becoming only the second goalie in the league's 25-year history to put up a golden goose egg.
"We have a strong team and we were both getting scored on quite a bit in the warmup and I was worried going into the game," said Bellamy. "They had a few good opportunities at the start of the game and in the third period and I was getting nervous toward the end. The shots came in spurts, I'd get five within a minute and then the ball would go down into their end for five minutes."
Bellamy's best save came late in the game when Stylers forward Parker Kerkoff bounced a shot off his pad and the rebound landed right in the pocket of Kerkoff's stick. On the second shot, Bellamy just managed to swing his arm in front of the ball to block it.
Shutouts are extremely rare in lacrosse because of the speed of the game, the size of the ball, the frequency of shots on net, and the range of shooting angles available to shooters. At the pro level, there's never been a shutout in the National Lacrosse League, which formed in 1998. The NLL record for fewest goals allowed in one game is two. Bob Watson of the Toronto Rock held the Philadelphia Wings to two goals in 1999, and Matt Vinc of the Rochester Knighthawks equaled that feat in April against the Minnesota Swarm.
Bellamy now has three shutouts in his career. He had one in a midget house league game and the other came at the B.C. Summer Games in Kelowna in 2008.
Ron Edgar was the only other PGSLA goalie to earn a shutout. That happened in the 1996 season while he was playing for the Stylers in a win over the Yellowhead Inn Red Dogs and it was the only one of Edgar's playing career. Bellamy was three years old at that time.
"Lacrosse is such a high-scoring game and there are so many shots, it's just really difficult to get a shutout, you have to have eyes in the back of your head," said Edgar, who retired from the league in 2008. "Jamie is a top-quality goaltender and I'm happy to hear that."
Nathaniel McFayden led the way offensively for the Devils Wednesday with five goals and three assists. Danton Nicholson had four goals and three assists, Spencer Ovenden had three goals and Blake McIntosh had a five-point game with a goal and four assists.
Bolstered by the addition of defenceman Steve Claydon, who played several years of senior B lacrosse on the coast, the Devils are off to a 5-0 start. The reigning B.C. senior C champions are on a 29-0 run, dating back to their undefeated 2014 season.
"We have a lot of experience on the back end - we're hoping to keep our streak going and have another undefeated season," said Bellamy, who joined the Devils last season after helping the Delta Islanders win the provincial junior A championship.
In their five wins this season, the Devils have outscored their opponents by a combined 83-20. Nursing a 17-0 lead in the second intermission, nobody was mentioning the word "shutout" in the Devils dressing room. With such a healthy lead, they just tried to hang onto the ball as long as possible to preserve Bellamy's perfect game.
"Jamie's a big plug and he loves to stop the ball," said Devils defenceman Scott Anderson. "He's not fancy, he's just very sound positionally. He doesn't bite on the fakes, he's calm and casual in the net and he fills the net so good because of his size.
"Sometimes it's hard in a game like that for a goalie when there's nothing serious happening and no intensity and all of a sudden you fall asleep a bit and they get some shots. He shut down (last year's league MVP Matt) Rochon and he had a couple of pretty decent shots. He kept Rochon and Brandin Daychief off the scoresheet and that's pretty impressive."
