The New Westminster Salmonbellies ended a nailbiter game with a tight win over the Nanaimo Timbermen Thursday night - the final score was 8-7.
Scoring was sparse in the first period, which ended in a 2-2 draw. The first half of the period was a dry spell for both teams and it wasn’t until past the 11-minute mark that Nanaimo scored into the New West net. Within two minutes, Nanaimo was leading 2-0. It took a power-play situation for the ‘Bellies Jordan McBride to finally get the puck past the Nanaimo netminder, bringing the score to 2-1. With another goal from McBride, the score was tied 2-2 at the end of the first period.
The second period started as a déjà vu of the first with first two goals from Nanaimo, then two from New West. After a back-and-forth between nets, the second period ended 5-5.
The third period saw almost even scoring, but the ‘Bellies managed one more than the Timbermen giving them a slight edge and the win over the visiting Island team.
The first star was given to Jordan McBride who scored three goals.
The Salmonbellies travel to Victoria to face the Shamrocks on June 3. Their next home game at Queen’s Park Arena is on June 7 against the Langley Thunder. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
