A late one-minute shorthanded rag by rookie Luke Gillespie might have salvaged a win for the junior A New Westminster Salmonbellies.
Leading by as much as six goals in the middle period, New West nearly squandered its lead and a victory, before holding on to salvage a 10-9 victory over the Victoria Shamrocks at Queen's Park Arena on Sunday.
Victoria rallied in the third period, outscoring the home team 5-1, including four goals in a four-minute span early in the frame.
Brandon Goodwin's hat-trick goal on an early power play stood up as the game-winner.
The outcome was in stark contrast to last Sunday's 12-4 demolition of the same Shamrock squad.
"I think we just got lazy," said Gillespie, whose heroics in the last minute of the game shaved all but 3.8 seconds off the time clock. "Last time, (Victoria) just gave up, but this week they had a little more fire than before and we just didn't match it."
New West went up early, holding a 4-1 advantage late in the opening period.
In the second period, it was more of the same with the junior 'Bellies outscoring the 'Rocks 5-2, including Keegan Bal's hat-trick goal on the shortman that made the score 9-3.
But, Victoria, which was coming off a 9-8 upset win over second-place Delta the night before, beat Salmonbellie keeper Frankie Scigliano five times on just 16 shots in the final frame to make the outcome close.
With the win, the 'Bellies remained a point behind Delta in third place. New Westminster is in Langley this Thursday at 8 p.m. against the Thunder.
