The New Westminster Salmonbellies racked up their 12th consecutive victory, but it took a strong third period to do it.
The junior A ’Bellies defeated the Langley Thunder 16-9 at home on Tuesday thanks to a seven-goal final period at Queen’s Park Arena.
With Steven Mayervich playing some of his best lacrosse of the season for Langley in the first two periods, the Thunder gave as good as they got in the opening 40 minutes.
Langley opened the scoring on the first of Brendan Mykle-Winkler’s three goals.
New Westminster led 4-3 after one period and was leading 9-6 with two minutes left in the middle frame before Langley drew even with three tallies in a span of 30 seconds.
But the third period was all New West, as Josh Byrne, who led all runners with a game-high six goals and eight points, opened the period with his game-winning fourth of the game.
Quinn Mackay scored 30 seconds later, and the rally was on in earnest as New West blanked the visiting Thunder with seven unanswered goals while outshooting Langley 19-4 in the period.
But New West was settling for quantity over quality in its shooting in the early going.
“We were settling for the outside shot. You want to get quality early in the shot clock. If (the ball) is not going in, you have to get inside,” said head coach Dan Perreault.
Connor Robinson scored twice and added four assists to move to within four points of a century in scoring this season. Lefthander Johnny Pearson also collected six points, while Jeremy Bosher added five points from the right side. Luke Gillespie tallied his second consecutive hat trick for New West.
The junior ’Bellies will take on Burnaby at the Bill Copeland centre on Sunday. Game time is 7 p.m.
