Timbermen Spoil ‘Bellies Home Opener

The New Westminster Salmonbellies opened up Queens Park for the first time this regular season on Sunday to take on the Nanaimo Timbermen, who were still looking for their first win of the season. 

The Timbermen certainly did not look like a team that was winless as they came out hard in the first period. Brett Hawrys opened up the scoring just under five minutes in to give the Timbermen a 1-0 lead, but Ryan Wilkinson didn’t let the lead last long as he evened up the score a minute later.

The Timbermen, who only had 10 shots in the first period, made each shot count. They took a 3-1 lead by the half way mark and everytime the Salmonbellies would get one back, the Timbermen responded immediately. Salmonbellies’ Preston Lupul scored on the first powerplay of the night to cut Nanaimo’s lead to one and it turned into a seasaw battle when Alec Molander made it a two-goal game again, but then Carter Dickson netted on their second powerplay of the period to make it a 4-3 game.

However, the Timbermen would continue to press hard for the rest of the period as Hawrys and Monty Chisholm netted a goal each and made it 6-3 for the Timbermen heading into the second period.

It seemed to be only a matter of time before the game got out of hand and opened up a bit and it happened within four minutes of the second period when Timbermen’s Ben Cawthorne and Tyrell Hammer-Jackson got into a fight. Unfortunately for Hammer-Jackson, he got ejected from the game, but it seemed to light a bit of a fire for the ‘Bellies as they scored three goals in less than two minutes to tie the game up 6-6.

Brody Glemnitz regained the Timbermen’s lead with 8:20 remaining and it wasn’t until 1:12 left when Carter Dickson scored his 4th of the game for the Salmonbellies to tie the game up again, but as the Timbermen were doing all game long, they got their lead back with 43 seconds to go in the second period with Glemnitz’s second of the game.

Surprising to many, the third period was all Timbermen as the Salmonbellies just couldn’t buy a goal. Just over five minutes into the third, Connor Leies gave the Timbermen a two-goal lead, followed by a goal from Darrin Wilson to make it 10-7 Timbermen. With under five minutes left in the game, Cole Kryworuchka, Leies and Tarrin Davies each scored and the Timbermen spoiled the Salmonbellies home opener with a 13-7 win.

It was a busy night for Timbermen goaltenders, but mainly Matt Zeller who stopped 35 of 39 shots, but Jerryd Jensen did his part in stopping 15 of 18 shots for a total of 57 shots. The Timbermen ended the night with 39 shots.

Three Stars of the Game

1. Nanaimo - Connor Leies – 2 Goals, 5 Assists

2. Nanaimo – Brett Hawrys – 2 Goals, 3 Assists

3. Nanaimo – Matt Zeller – 35 Saves, 4 Goals Against

The Timbermen will hope to carry the momentum at home when they take on the Burnaby Lakers on May 9th and the Salmonbellies will get right back to it on May 5 when they take on the Delta Islanders at home.