The PoCo Saints gave up the first six goals of the game and never recovered as they dropped the opening game of their BCJALL playoff series against the New Westminster Salmonbellies, 10-5, Tuesday at Queen’s Park Arena in New West.
Despite outshooting the hosts 57-43, the Saints had trouble converting their scoring chances as they trailed 3-0 after the first period and 8-2 at the end of the second.
Saints’ coach Kelly Scott said a lot of those shots weren’t of high enough quality to beat Salmonbellies’ goalie Eric Kratz.
“Some of our shots weren’t exceptional,” Scott said. “We’ve got to shoot better.”
Scott said the playoff inexperience of many of his players may also have factored into the Saints’ slow start.
“They didn’t really know what to expect,” Scott said. “Playoffs are harder, tougher, faster.”
Meanwhile, the Salmonbellies upped their game even before the opening faceoff as they switched benches to claim the visitors’ side. Scott said that threw some of his players off and mental errors followed when the hosts started hitting harder, playing faster.
“We didn’t react,” he said. “And when you let a team like New West get up on you, it’s very tough to come back.”
Scott said the Salmonbellies seemed eager to avenge a 10-4 regular season loss to the Saints. It wasn’t until the third period his side finally started playing their game and pushing the pace.
After Nick Chaykowsky scored his second goal of the game early in the period to put the Bellies up 9-2. Clarke Walter and Ryland Rees responded with goals 24 seconds apart to make it 9-4. New West’s Larson Sundown and PoCo’s Daylan Kellough exchanged power play goals late in the game to finish the scoring. The Saints outshot their hosts 19-8 in the frame.
That’s fuelled Scott’s optimism heading into the second game of the best-of-five series, Friday at 8 p.m. at the PoCo rec centre.
“It’s a good learning experience,” Scott said. “They now see what level they’ve got to bring themselves to. They’ve got to pick up their level of compete.”
