The stands were full and the temperature was rising at the Kinsmen Arena on Friday night.

While the fans attempted to stay cool, the action on the court remained hot throughout the 60-minute contest.  

The Moose Jaw Chiefs withstood a late charge from the Saskatoon Brewers and picked up a late goal from Frank Davalos to win 14-13 in Game 1 of the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League’s senior division final.

“That was honestly exactly what I expected, both teams came out blazing, we had full benches on both teams, everyone was there, competitive to the last second, so it was an amazing game,” said Davalos after the win.

“It was pretty special to score that winning goal, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to play Moose Jaw lacrosse, so it felt good to help the boys out when it mattered.  Pretty special.”

Moose Jaw's Tanner Kittler cuts towards the net during Friday's game at the Kinsmen Arena.

The Chiefs took a 12-9 lead into the third period, but the Brewers charged back hard and were able to pull even late in the final frame.  That was until Davalos scored the game winner with just 9.8 seconds remaining in the game.

“It started off that we wanted to get a timeout early, but we didn't manage to call it until there was 23 seconds left, but everything worked out perfectly, they were playing a zone defence, we all recognized it and we started sending cutters, and it worked out where I popped out and Taylor saw me for the shot,” said Davalos.  “It was just all around a perfect play, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

The Brewers had thought they took the lead just moments before Davalos’ goal after a shot grazed the side of the net.  Saskatoon’s coaches, along with captain Showw Kolk were examining the net after the game, but were left with the loss.

Davalos had three goals and six points for the Chiefs in the win, while Todd Doepker scored four times and added two assists, and Taylor Dobrescu had a hat trick and four points.

Carter Davis, Pete Jukes and Tanner Kittler also scored in the win for Moose Jaw.

The game was back-and-forth right from the opening face-off with both teams trading goals just 18 seconds apart three minutes in.  The first period ended with Moose Jaw up 7-6.

The end-to-end action continued into the second period with both sides throwing everything they could at each other.  The Chiefs again left the period with the lead, taking a 12-9 advantage into the third.

Saskatoon twice in the first 3:05 of the third to cut Moose Jaw’s lead down to one and they would tie the game with 10:09 to go in regulation.

The pace of the game slowed down in the second half of the third period as both teams tightened up defensively.

Moose Jaw went back in front with a goal from Davalos just 39 seconds after Samy Murphy had tied things up for the Brewers, but Saskatoon tied it up again moments later, setting up Davalos’ late heroics.

“It was really special to play this game at the Kinsmen where we all grew up playing,” said Davalos.  “We’re focusing on today right now, but the minute tomorrow comes, we switch to the second game and hopefully there’s not a third mini-game, but if there is, we’re focused on those two games.”

The Chiefs took six penalties in the third period and coming out of the game, Davalos said that’s where they need to get better going into Game 2.

“Coming into this game, I knew that these guys are super aggressive and we’re not use to facing teams that are that aggressive and so they tend to under our skin, so we’ve really got to try to avoid taking stupid penalties,” he said.

The Chiefs and Brewers meet for Game 2 on Sunday at 5 p.m. in Saskatoon.  If Moose Jaw loses, they will play a ten-minute mini-game afterwards to decide a champion.