It was the wild, wild west at Queen’s Park Arena on Sunday.
The junior A New Westminster Salmonbellies were the last team standing following a 16-13 shootout win over the visiting Victoria Shamrocks at Queen’s Park Arena on Sunday.
New West came out with all guns blazing, firing more than 71 shots at the Victoria cage.
Johnny Pearson scored his first of four goals in the game, wiring the game-opener past Charles Claxton at 40 seconds of the first period.
But Matt Hamilton returned fire, notching his first two of three and the shootout was on in earnest.
Victoria led 6-5 after the opening salvo and both teams were deadlocked at 9-9 heading into the final frame.
But nothing changed in the third. Alex Bohl started off the period with an excellent transition goal, fighting off a Victoria defender all the way down the floor to score shorthanded.
But the ’Rocks still had plenty of ammunition left, tying the contest on two separate occasions until Pearson notched the game-winner on a quick reply to McLean Chicquen’s fourth of the game midway through the third period.
Luke Gillespie, who scored a brilliant goal in the middle frame with a series of spinning moves, tallied an equally clever counter to register a career-high fifth of the game minutes later.
“We just kept going back and forth. Neither team could really take off until we got those last three,” said Gillespie. “I definitely took a lot of shots I probably shouldn’t have. We definitely got to gear up for (Delta).”
Claxton was kept busy stopping 55 Salmonbellie shots in the game, while New West keeper Ross Bowman struggled, stopping just 26 of 39 Victoria chances.
Connor Robinson and Anthony Malcom, in his first game of the season, both collected a pair of goals for the home team.
Jeremy Bosher, Chris Nasato and Bohl also had multi-point outings.
The win drew New West to within a point of first-place Coquitlam. Delta is currently tied with the Salmonbellies with 16 points each, but New West holds three games in hand on the Ladner club.
“Teams are still pretty even,” said Gillespie. “We had a tough game with Burnaby, we lost to Delta and we had a tough game with these guys. … The team that gets it will definitely have to work for it.”
New West played the Delta Islanders on Tuesday (after Recorddeadlines).
The juniors are in Port Coquitlam on Friday and in Nanaimo on Sunday.
