In 190 minutes over three regular season games against the Langley Thunder, the New Westminster Salmonbellies scored just three more goals than the Thunder. That differential was rendered feeble in the first 20 minutes of Wednesday night’s Western Lacrosse Association playoff opener.

The Salmonbellies jumped out to a 7-2 first-period lead in defusing the Thunder 12-5 to take the first game of the best-of-seven WLA final. Game 2 was set to go last night (Friday) in Langley with the third game at Queen’s Park Arena tomorrow, 7:45 p.m.

In the other WLA semifinal, the Coquitlam Adanacs took a surprising 2-0 lead in their series with regular-season champion Victoria by downing the visitors 15-12 Thursday.

They were so good to start they sent Langley’s starting goalie Joe Bell, traded in the off-season by the ’Bellies, to the bench just 11:37 into the game after giving up six goals on 16 shots. The Salmonbellies continued their domination in the second period with three late goals while the visitors didn’t even get a sniff of the Salmonbellies net let alone score on it. New West outshot Langley 22-14 in the first period, 26-11 in the second and 59-43 overall.

“We were ready to go, and we’re going to be better. This is just the start,” said Salmonbellies bench boss Bob Salt. “I don’t think you can blame Joe, we had so many shots on him.”

The Thunder is an evolving force led by a pack of talented former Burnaby Jr. Lakers and Jr. ’Bellies. This is their first playoff appearance after residing in the league’s basement suite for several years.

“They’re a very good team, they run, run, run. That’s great for our guys for a first series not like in the past when we got Nanaimo. They’re a great test,” said Salt. “That team’s full of people who have won, and that’s a good ingredient.”

New West has more than it’s fair share of young talent, it’s just that they’ve been through some WLA playoff wars before. Former Jr. Laker captain Ilija Gajic had four goals and an assist, even though he’s only been back playing box lacrosse for a month after returning from the University of Denver, and Cliff Smith, another ex-Jr. Laker, had two goals and three assists while taking 13 shots.

Scott Stewart, who had 15 goals and 33 points in eight games after joining the Salmonbellies midway through the season, continued to put up points with a goal and three assists. Stewart was courted to play for New West by Peter and Dave Morgan, his teammates with the National Lacrosse League’s Portland Lumberjax. He was set to join them last year but had a groin injury and got married in June. After returning from the honeymoon, he looked at the standings and realized the Salmonbellies were so far ahead of all the other teams and he didn’t feel right taking away somebody’s spot.

Since the Ontario product has been living out here with his wife taking a masters degree at SFU, he decided to suit up for the Salmonbellies this summer.

“I just missed it too much I just wanted to come out and play. They kept bugging me,” said Stewart after Wednesday’s game. “It’s been real fun. It’s been awhile since I played in the summer, a different pace. I knew a lot of guys from the NLL so it was an easy room to walk into. It’s a lot of fun.

“It was good tonight. That was our (full) lineup and it worked really well.”

The 30-year-old grew up in Brantford playing his minor lacrosse with nearby Six Nations before playing junior in Burlington and senior with Six Nations. He’s played 113 games in the NLL scoring 120 goals and 272 points. But most of those numbers were racked up from 2002 to 2005 with New Jersey and Anaheim. The last couple of years Portland has used him in more defensive and transitional roles.

“He’s a big-game player. He’s only going to get better and better,” said Salt.

Stewart was concerned about being outscored 3-2 and outshot 16-11 in the third period. He’d have preferred to keep the Thunder quiet all night and not give the youngsters any confidence.

“We can’t get carried away. We’ve got to stick to our game plan,” Stewart said. “We knew we were going to win so we took some liberties. We can’t do that.”

Even the second period domination bothered him because they only got three goals on 26 shots.

“When it comes later in the series, you’re not going to get that many chances and when you do you’ve got to score.”

• Tyler Crompton had two goals for the Salmonbellies with others going to Chris Gill, Jamie Floris, and Peter Morgan. Former Jr. Laker Stephan LeBlanc sniped Langley’s first three goals with the others going to Garrett Billings, a former BC Jr. A scoring champ with Burnaby, and ex-Jr. Laker Alex Turner.

ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com