Saints Give Home Crowd a Great Game

Like most of the fans at Fridays game, I was looking forward to an entertaining game between Port Coquitlam and New Westminster after a long day at work. I left completely satisfied after a thriller of a third frame.

The game started off quiet enough with PoCo ahead 1-0 after a goal from Martin Cummings, but Jordan McBride got New West even just one minute into the second on the power play. Kyle Belton made no mistake from just outside the crease to get the Bellies the lead for the first time in the game, and score their second PPG of the period.

Mike Conner evened it up for the Saints just before two great fights broke out. PoCo runner Dayne Michaud gave Jarett Toll a bloody eye brow; but Max Gallant got the point in his fight with Parker Baigent landing quite a few good punches.

After the pushing and shoving, Alex Turner put another on the board for the Bellies while he was getting checked down by Tyler Grewal. Jordan Flaman and Andrew Murphy scored for the Saints to end the second period up 4-3 on New West.

The third period was pure determination for both teams, New West wasn’t going home with a loss to the lower ranked Poco; and the Saints weren’t giving up what they worked so hard for in the last two periods. That combination of emotion led to an intense final frame.

Max Gallant evened it up five minutes in but no more than a minute later Eric Sage set up Jason Webster to keep the home crowd cheering. After killing a high sticking penalty, PoCo was on a high and had a ton of chances on net.

With two and a half minutes to go Kyle Belton tied it up, and then gave his team a huge boost by scoring again thirty seconds later for the go ahead.

Curtis Dickson had a smart play in the New West end, gaining a loose ball and putting it past Ray Hodgekinson. With the game tied it looked as if it was headed for overtime until Martin Cummings took the chance for the Saints and found the back of the net with two seconds left in the game.

After I realized what just happened, I reminded myself to blink, closed my mouth, and looked around to see the crowd doing the same. A great win for the Saints who needed a booster at this point in their season.