John Makowsky slept in Thursday morning and the extra long rest was well-deserved.
It's exhausting work scoring goals and setting up teammates to win playoff games in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association, especially in the heat of a 30 C day, which drained Makowsky's energy levels Wednesday night at Kin 1.
He scored six goals and added two assists for the Northland Nissan Assault in a 9-7 victory over the BX Pub Bandits in the fifth and deciding game of the semifinal series. With the win, the Assault advance to the best-of-seven PGSLA final series against the undefeated Westwood Pub Devils, starting Monday night at 8 at Kin 1.
"Everybody came together with the same mindset, we wanted to control the ball and everybody was ready to play hard and leave it all on the floor," said Makowsky. "It was pretty back and forth all game. We just focused on picking up every loose ball we could and keeping it out of their sticks because if they don't have the ball on their sticks they can't score."
Craig Dunfield complemented Makowsky's efforts with a four-point night, including two goals. Drew Doig, Ryan Waddington and Braeden Lalonde each had two goals for BX Pub. The Bandits had a short bench and sorely missed the services of Damon Calfa, who had work commitments, and Cole Paciejewski, who was away fighting forest fires.
Russill Mills made 40 saves in the Assault nets, while Liam Miller turned away 31 shots for the Bandits.
The Devils should be well-rested after a relatively easy three-game sweep of the Cowboy Ranch/Regional Security Stylers, outscoring the Stylers 58-19 in the series. The Devils, who went 12-0 in the regular season, wrapped up the series Thursday and will have had 10 days rest by the time they begin the final.
"We're going to have to play solid defence to beat them," said Makowsky. "In this past series we started to find our flow on offence. We've struggled with that the whole season but now we've started to get comfortable with the guys we have up there. We know nothing's going to come easy because they have a very solid core of defensive players as well."
The Assault won the playoffs the past three seasons but struggled to fill the roster this season, finishing second with a mediocre 6-6 record.
Jamie Bellamy, who has split the Devils' goaltending duties with Steven Brizan, says his team would love to keep its winning streak going but expects the Assault will have something to say about that.
"They're a tough matchup with Makowsky and [Dunfield] - they're two big physical forces who can run and they really force the transition game, so it's tough playing against them," said Bellamy.
"They gave us a really tight game in that last one there but they've been without [Davey] Jenkins and that definitely is a benefit to us if he's not playing. He's good on the defensive end too so he can limit a few goals."
Jenkins is the pointman for the Assault and consistently has been one of the deadliest shooters in the league the past decade. His work commitments as a lawyer limited him to just six regular season games. He played in the last regular season game, a 9-7 loss to the Devils, which left him with an injured knee that forced him to miss all five playoff games.
"I've been told it's a probable meniscus tear," said the 29-year-old Jenkins. "I was hitting a guy and turned my right foot outwards so my knee wasn't quite traveling straight when I was extending my legs and I felt my knee pop towards the inside.
"I'm out for the finals and I'm pretty disappointed. It's the first time since I started playing at age four I've had to sit out any number of games. When you play with a team that's short of players you need every guy you can get. We have a lot of guys working out of town, and it's just unavoidable. We have to play short-benched and it's tough in the big arena in Kin 1, especially in this heat."
Assault goalie Russill Mills, the top goalie in the league last season, expects to play in Game 1 but beyond that won't be available for Games 2 and 3 due to a planned vacation. Intermediate callup Keith Bizicki will get the call in goal once Mills leaves town.
The Devils have added key individuals this season like Bellamy, Cameron Braun, Jamie Klarenbeek, Brian Horning, Andrew Schwab, Mike Padalec and impressive rookie Andrew Sivell. All those extra bodies have lessened the workloads of key veterans Brizan, Scott Anderson, Blake McIntosh, Brent McIsaac and Danton Nicholson.
"They have two solid lines of offensive guys who can score and I wish we were in the same situation," said Jenkins.
After Game 1, the series resumes next Wednesday and Thursday, with Game 4 set for Monday, July 27. If needed, the series will continue July 28, 29, and 30.
Two Lower Mainland teams, the Vancouver Burrards and Port Moody Express, have confirmed entry in the Treasure Cove Casino senior invitational/senior C provincial championship, set for Aug. 15-17 at the Kin Centre. They will join the four local teams, and possibly teams from Nanaimo and Red Deer. Port Moody has won the senior C title the past three seasons.
