It appears that the junior A New Westminster Salmonbellies learned a valuable lesson.
After a four-goal loss to Langley the week before, New Westminster hunkered down and survived a first-period onslaught to post an 11-9 comeback win in overtime over the No. 2 nationally ranked Coquitlam Adanacs on Monday.
"We told the players that Langley was a good test for us and the message was loud and clear - stay focused," said Salmonbellies head coach Dan Perreault.
The junior 'Bellies trailed 6-3 after 20 minutes, including a buzzer-beating goal by Reid Reinhardt from 13 metres out.
The following period, New Westminster's Brandon Goodwin and Reagan Harding took over.
The final-year forwards garnered a dozen points between them, including a hat trick for Goodwin and four markers for Harding, a Saskatoon product.
Harding's second and third goals of the game got the deficit to within a goal on two occasions in the middle period. His fourth of the night, and third on the power play, knotted the score at 7-7 early in the final frame.
Goodwin gave the visitors a 9-8 lead with less than five minutes to play, but Wesley Berg, on a lastsecond penalty shot, sent the game into extra time at the Poirior Street venue.
"Sometimes you need a good loss to move forward, but we learned from it," said Perreault. "We feel we match up very well with any team five-on-five, and we capitalized on our power play tonight. We got rewarded."
New Westminster had a couple of early opportunities go wanting in the 10minute overtime period.
Kyle Dobbie clanged a shot off the post early in the extra time followed by Alex Lohr, who had Coquitlam goalie Davide DiRuscio beat on a break but had his shot deflect off the base of the near post.
Dobbie eventually scored the game-winner at 8: 11 of OT on a side-arm shot from outside. Drew House tallied the clincher, with a short-side finish in close a minute later.
Frankie Scigliano got the win in goal, turning aside 36 Adanac shots in perhaps the team's biggest win of the season to date.
"They know how hard they had to work to win this game. The feeling they have right now - they have some ice packs on them - that's what it takes," Perreault added.
The win inched the 8-4-0 Salmonbellies to within a point of second-place Delta and just two points out of first place. The junior Adanacs saw their record fall to 9-2-0.
New Westminster gets the weekend off before playing host to the lowly Burnaby Lakers at Queen's Park Arena on Tuesday, June 19.
