Billy Marshall cashed in a hat trick and Myles Bell added two goals on Sunday as the Lacombe Generals trounced the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs 8-4 in Allan Cup Hockey West play.
The Generals finished the weekend 1-1 after a 3-2 overtime loss to Stony Plain Saturday night.
“Good to get the two points after a long night last night with a short bench. Good to get three points out of four on the weekend and hopefully build towards next weekend with a back-to-back with Rosetown,” said Bell, who had a four-point game in the victory Sunday.
Lacombe controlled the play for the majority of the first period and outshot the visitors 21-6 in the opening frame, with Marshall, Chris Gerrie, and Bell all finding the mark.
The Chiefs pushed back in the second, scoring two goals 23 seconds apart midway through the period to cut the deficit to one. Lacombe responded quickly with three goals in under two minutes to all but put the game away. Kye Bailey buried a wrist shot high over the glove of Chiefs goalie Devon Fordyce at 7:26 of the frame, before Bell added his second of the game on a backhand at 6:13. Brett Robertson potted a rebound at 5:49.
“We were getting a bit too relaxed and complacent. These are good games for us to work those kinks out and make sure those little lapses don’t happen against some of the stronger teams,” Bell said.
“Any night you put 50 shots on net, it’s pretty uncommon in this league for goalies to stand on their head and stop all 5o of them. That’s our mindset … just direct as much rubber at the net as we can.”
Marshall notched his second of the night early in the third and finished off the hat trick on an empty-net goal with just over two minutes to play.
“I think we were just getting pucks to the net. Sounds really cliche but (that’s) the kind of opportunities we had all game. We were swarming the net all over,” Marshall said
“Our line had a lot of possessions and the other lines kept it going. Just fed off each other and got some bounces too. That last one, the guy gambled and it went wrong so a bit of luck I guess too.”
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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