Tonight in the WLA the Langley Thunder (11-3-2) hosts the New Westminster Salmonbellies (6-9-1). The Thunder recently clinched first place in the WLA and are currently on a six game winning streak. Langley and New Westminster so far this season have tied once along with Langley dominating the Salmonbellies 10-5 in their second meeting. The Salmonbellies need to win this game to keep their playoff hopes alive as they sit two points back of fourth place.
New Westminster comes into this game after getting outclassed by the Shamrocks 15-6. The Salmonbellies will need to come into this game fired up and ready to go from the first period and need to play a complete 60 minutes. The Salmonbellies will look to Jordan McBride to lead the offense in order to put the Salmonbellies in a position to win. The Salmonbellies will Neil Tyacke to step up in net and shutdown the Langley attack. The good news is the Thunder have nothing to play for anymore and may consider resting players in order to keep them healthy. In any case the Salmonbellies will need to give it everything they have because if they lose tonight they will lose their chance at the playoffs.
For Langley this is really a meaningless game as they have already clinched first place and will want to start looking towards the playoffs. This would be a great time to give their star players such as Athan Iannucci and Dane Dobbie some rest in order to keep them healthy heading into the playoffs. The scary thing is that as Langley heads into the playoffs they will have Garret Billings, Mark Matthews, and Joel McCready in the lineup. Langley is the clear favourites to win the WLA championship so do not expect them to take any unnecessary risks before the playoffs.
Expect the Thunder to defeat the Salmonbellies and take another step toward the WLA championship. The Salmnobellies only chance in this game is if they can find a way to shutdown Langley’s offense.
