The Timbermen reeled in the Salmonbellies in the third period and won the game.
The Nanaimo Coastal Windows Timbermen defeated the New Westminster Salmonbellies 11-8 on Sunday night at Frank Crane Arena to sweep a home-and-home series.
The 'Bellies held a 7-5 lead after two periods, but the Timbermen tied it up and then, with three minutes left, got a game-breaking transition goal from Brad Mazzocato and took over.
"We were happy with the way we were playing the first two periods…" said Cody Bremner, who scored a hat trick. "We just kept calm and said, 'You know what? We're playing good and if we keep playing like that they're going to start to go in.'
"We put our nose to the grindstone and got it done and worked as hard as we have all season, I think, and that showed out there."
Kaleb Toth, coach of the T-men, said his players got better as the game went on.
"Our defence stood on their head, they played really well, [goalie Zak] Boychuk played amazing again and our offence found a way to put the ball in the net," said Toth. "That's what we need."
Nanaimo didn't take a single penalty in the game and also seemed to win the loose-ball battle.
Aside from Bremner's hat trick, Mike Berekoff scored twice including the game-winning goal 30 seconds after Mazzocato's marker. Jake Emms scored a beauty in the second period as he was falling backward. Other scorers were Braeden Kmita, Myles Dennett, Kyle Dexter and Doug Langlois. Barclay Hickey was 10-for-13 on faceoffs and Boychuk made 46 saves.
It was the first home-floor victory for the Timbermen and the first consecutive wins, and it puts the Coastal T-men right back in the playoff race in the WLA.
"We've got a lot of guys who want to work hard and want to win," said Toth. "And that winning is such a good feeling that they're going to keep working hard because it's something that you never want to let go of."
GAME ON … The next game for the senior A Timbermen is Saturday (June 29) when they host the Victoria Shamrocks at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena … On Thursday, the T-men beat the Salmonbellies 14-11 at Queen's Park Arena. Cayle Ratcliff had a four-goal game that night, Bremner and Myles Kenny scored hat tricks and Dexter, Blake Kenny, Langlois and Paul Brebber were the other scorers. Boychuk made 31 stops in that game.
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