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Sunday night will be another fun night in the WLA with two intriguing matchups taking place. Both starting at 6 pm, the New Westminster Salmonbellies travel to the Harbour City for a meeting with the Nanaimo Timbermen while in Maple Ridge, the Burrards host the Victoria Shamrocks in an important game for both sides. We’re here with a preview of each game on how it can impact the race to the playoffs.

New Westminster Salmonbellies (8-6, 14 Pts, 4th) @ Nanaimo Timbermen (9-5, 18 Pts, 3rd) 

These teams have not met since June 20th, when it was the Salmonbellies earning a 14-6 win. However, since that victory, New West has gone 4-3, including Thursday’s 16-5 beatdown of the Coquitlam Adanacs, and have four games left this season. The Bellies have a 3-4 road record, including falling short in their last road game 11-5 on Tuesday to the Maple Ridge Burrards. New West averages a league-best 11.36 goals per game and are led by Mitch Jones, who has a league-high 68 points. In their last win over Nanaimo, Jones had two goals and seven assists and will look to continue his point total Sunday. 

The T-Men enter Sunday night with a two-game winning streak as they took down the Coquitlam Adanacs 9-6 in Coquitlam on Saturday. Nanaimo brings the league’s second-best powerplay, converting at a 50% rate, and will need to capitalize on their special team opportunities if they want to beat New West. Colton Clark had an impressive performance for the T-Men last night, netting a hat trick along with two assists. Look for him to make some noise going up against the Bellies on Sunday. 

Victoria Shamrocks (8-5, 14 Pts, 5th) @ Maple Ridge Burrards (9-5, 18 Pts, 1st)

The Shamrocks are making their second trip to Cam Neely Arena this season. They lost that game 9-5, but that was back on June 9th, and even after the Rocks 9-6 win over the Burrards in Victoria a week later, these teams look much different compared to those games. Maple Ridge is coming off an 11-5 win against New West on Tuesday while the Shamrocks dropped a hard-fought 11-8 battle to the Langley Thunder at the LEC on Wednesday. 

Victoria is second in the league in both goals for and goals against this season, solidifying themselves as one of the most complete teams in the WLA. Name alone, Larson Sundown might be the hottest player right now, but his play is undoubtedly helping his case. Sundown has scored multiple points in every game he’s played this season and is looking to score in his 5th straight game. Steve Priolo has also been a name to remember as he’s averaged almost a point per game and has one of the most active transition games in the WLA. You can usually see him getting at least one or two breakaway chances a game. 

Maple Ridge has an argument for being the complete team as they’re complete at every position. Frank Scigliano leads the league in most goalie categories, including wins, save percentage, and goals-against average. One of the best trade deadline acquisitions, Dane Dobbie, has been electric since switching to the Burrards blue and white, as he has ten goals and six assists in just three games so far. He has not faced the Shamrocks this season, so this will be an exciting matchup to watch as the night progresses. 

Catch every WLA game in the race to the postseason live with WLA TV! There are less than two weeks until the end of the regular season so you won’t want to miss any of the action!