Lakers Double Up Salmonbellies at Queen's Park

The last time Burnaby and New West met, the Salmonbellies came away with a home win. Tonight the Lakers were more focused and got their league-leading 16th win.

Garrett Billings opened up scoring for the Lakers in the first, receiving a nice pass from Dane Dobbie, and diving through the air to make it count.

Pete McFetridge picked off a bad Salmonbellies pass, and took it in for an unassisted goal past Craig Robertson.

With five minutes left in the first Dobbie chalked up two more assists on goals from Stephan Leblanc, and another from Billings.

Alex Turner scored the lone goal in the first for the Bellies, with a great feed from Kyle Belton and Kyle Starchuk.

Dobbie started the second with a power play goal of his own with only 7 seconds left on the penalty. 

Burnaby’s Brock Armour and New West’s Kyle Buchanan decided it was time to spill a little frustration and dropped the gloves halfway through the second. It was an intense fight, and only the beginning of the rough stuff for the night.

Garrett Billings threw in another goal for the Lakers and this led to Sean Tessarolo coming in for Craig Robertson.

After the goalie switch there was another fight between Bubba Westwood and new Laker James Cruickshank. Cruickshank the winner for that one, but after the game he had quite the meaty-looking eye!

Burnaby goalie Angus Goodleaf got called for a delay of game penalty after throwing the ball into the iron in the roof- this call got a lot of attention from the Burnaby fans, not to mention the Burnaby bench.

Turner took advantage of the penalty for New West and threw in his second goal of the game.

Lakers captain Brad Richardson and Bubba Westwood went at it which resulted in Westwood getting a game misconduct; and then right when the buzzer went Stephan Leblanc and New West runner James Poelzer decided to have a go at each other as well. 

Garrett Billings and Alex Turner both got one more goal in the third to cap off a great night for both players; and Kyle Belton managed to squeeze one past Goodleaf on the power play.

One more fight for good measure- New West captain Eric Lewthwaite cross checked Dane Dobbie in the chin which brought Joe Vetere in to defend his teammate. The refs let these guys go and it was a good one- the decision went to Vetere by the crowd.

This game was a delight to watch; it gave a great preview into the playoffs- lots of thought out plays, professional stick-work, intensity, and great fights- bring on the post season!

Final score was 8-4 in favour of the Lakers with shots even at 35 a piece.

New West plays their final regular season game against Nanaimo on Sunday; and Burnaby will play in Coquitlam this Thursday.