Bellie report – vs. Nanaimo Timbermen – July 19th, 2012

Much to the relief of everyone in the Bellies camp, Thursday night’s home game vs. the Nanaimo Timbermen not only sealed up the season series for the team, but also kept their play-off hopes alive.

Though the Bellies won handily when they opened up the season vs. the T-men, winning an easy 17-7 game, Nanaimo returned the favour when the Bellies met them on the island a few weeks later. The final score that night was 10-8 for the home team.

Thursday’s game started out a close one. After twenty minutes, the score was deadlocked at three goals a piece. Two goals from Ilija Gajic and one from brother Alex kept the Bellies in the game until the first break.

 Throughout the second period, the Bellies continued scoring with two goals from rookie Mike Berekoff and one from Jeff Zywicki. The Timbermen were able to keep pace with the Bellies and at the second intermission, the Bellies went to their dressing room with a 7-6 lead.

The third period was when the Bellies really hit the gas. They outscored their opponents 5-1 in the final twenty minutes of the game, closing the night with a 12-7 victory and still contenders in the race for the post-season.

New Westminster swept the WLA three-star selection with Alex Gajic being named the third star for the second game in a row, Corbyn Tao named the second and Ilija Gajic first.

A lot of work still needs to be done to salvage a post-season this summer: currently sitting in fifth place, the Bellies need to win the remainder of their games while hoping for just the right number of losses for the teams above them in order to ease their way into one of the four play-off spots. In the event that the regular season ends in a tie, the WLA rules for breaking that tie are as follows:

1. Number of wins
2. Season series wins
3. Goals for and goals against in the season series
4. Goals for and goals against overall

The Bellies hit the wooden floor at least one more time this year and that is this Thursday, July 26th. The Coquitlam Adanacs will be in New West to settle the score on that season series and to work on their own play-off ambitions. It’s Guaranteed Win Night with coupons from Boston Pizza New West at the door. Game time is 7:45.