The New Westminster Salmonbellies opened their B.C. Junior Lacrosse League season with a 9-6 victory over Victoria.
The junior A ’Bellies got six points, including an opening two-goal spark from first-year runner Preston Lupul, to win their season opener on the road on Vancouver Island on Sunday.
Lupul, who recorded his first junior point two years earlier in his first-ever junior A appearance, scored off the opening faceoff, giving the visiting Fishmen a 1-0 lead after just five seconds of play.
Lupul also drew an assist on Tyrell Hamer-Jackson’s 3-2 go-ahead goal late in the first period, despite the hometeam Shamrocks holding a decisive 20-8 edge in shots on goal.
New West managed to hold on to a 7-4 lead after 40 minutes after outshooting the ’Rocks 19-8 in the middle frame.
The difference was a change in the defensive system between periods, which had assistant Salmonbellie coach Clay Richardson hopeful of a strong back end this season.
Victoria pelted Salmonbellie netminder Michael Flintoff with 22 shots in the final frame but could not reduce the deficit.
Flintoff earned the game’s third star with 44 saves in his opening outing.
“We have coachable kids, who want to play, who want to learn and who want to work hard,” said Richardson, who acted as head coach in the opener for Dan Perreault who was behind the bench in Buffalo with the NLL Vancouver Stealth over the weekend.
Hamer-Jackson finished with a five-point afternoon for the visitors, while Carter Dickson added two goals a minute apart early in the middle period to help New West take a four-goal lead.
Riley Peterson scored the eventual game winner for the ’Bellies, firing home an even-strength goal midway through the contest from Hamer-Jackson and Lupul.
Wyatt Pinder and Ryan Wilkinson both scored into an empty net to ensure New West of its first win of the season.
New Westminster will be bigger and looking to be more aggressive than last season, said Richardson.
With the acquisition of 6-4 DJ Saari and the off-season enticements of Western Hockey League defenceman Cole Bevan and former high school football star Drew Belgrave to the core Salmonbellie lineup, Richardson is eager to see how the added pieces fit towards producing a much sought after berth into the Minto Cup.
“Defensively, we’re getting a lot bigger and more aggressive,” he said. “We have to power the ball much more aggressively."
New West plays its home opener this Sunday against the Nanaimo Timbermen at Queen’s Park Arena. Game time is 5 p.m.
The junior Salmonbellies also take on the Delta Islanders on their usual Tuesday night matchups at home at 8 p.m. on May 5.
In other season starts around the league, Delta doubled the Burnaby Lakers 12-6 on Saturday, Coquitlam easily handled the T-Men 10-5 at home and Langley got by Port Coquitlam Saints 11-9 at the PoCo rec centre in the season opener last Friday.
The Lakers also dropped their home opener at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Sunday by a 10-9 score to the Saints.
“I knew going in it was going to be tough,” said former Salmonbellie head coach Brad Parker after Sunday’s near comeback.
With eight players missing from the Burnaby lineup and key leaders graduated from last season squad, Parker knows he must start again from square 1.
Burnaby’s 5-15-1 record was widely regarded as a B.C. Junior A league success story last season after the once storied franchise came dead-last, mustering just one win in all of 2013.
But, this year will likely be less about building on last season’s succcess and more about finding their way again following two straight losses to start the Jr. A summer season, said Parker.
Burnaby’s Adian Milburn led the Lakers with four goals against Delta and added his second straight hat trick along with three assists against PoCo to lead the league in scoring.
