With second place in the Western Lacrosse Association at stake, the New Westminster Salmonbellies responded to a strong challenge from the Coquitlam Adanacs by downing the A’s 6-3 at Queen’s Park Arena Thursday evening.

The ’Bellies looked to be in danger of relinquishing second spot when they trailed 3-1 early in the second period. But New West shut down Coquitlam from there and scored five unanswered goals.

With the victory, the Salmonbellies (8-3-1) hold a three-point edge over the third-place Adanacs (7-4-0).

Peter Morgan scored twice for the Salmonbellies—their first and last goals—with Jordan Hall getting a goal and three assists. Jordan McBride, Cliff Smith and Martin Cummings all had a goal and an assist.

Tyler Richards made 38 saves in the New West net and was particularly strong in the second period when he stopped 18 of 19 A’s shots.

The ’Bellies don’t play again until next Thursday when they play host to the Nanaimo Timbermen (2-7-1).

• New Westminster was quiet at the WLA trading deadline, but the same could not be said for the Burnaby Lakers (1-8-1).

They traded away the league’s top defensive player the last two season, Curtis Hodgson, to the first-place Victoria Shamrocks (9-1-0) for a 2010 first-round draft pick and another in 2011.

Hodgson, 27, has been a league all-star the last four years scoring 38 goals and 84 points in 58 games. The Burnaby native, who won two Minto Cups with the Burnaby Jr. Lakers, also played last four seasons for the San Jose Stealth in the National Lacrosse League and is a teacher at Byrne Creek secondary in Burnaby.

“We are very excited to add another elite player in Curtis Hodgson,” said Shamrocks general manager Chris Welch in a press release. “There were several teams competing for his services and we paid a significant price to get him because we couldn’t pass up the opportunity when the Lakers made him available. He will make us better.”

Welch also said the club expects to have Hodgson in its lineups for years to come.

As fate would have it, Hodgson’s first game in Shamrock green instead of Laker green came Friday night in familiar surroundings at Bill Copeland Arena.

Burnaby also made a deal with the Adanacs sending another defensive specialist and native son, Mike Kilby, and a fourth-round pick to Coquitlam for the A’s first rounder in 2010 and Neil Arbogast.

Kilby, 28, played Thursday in New Westminster but did not pick up a point. In his four seasons with the Lakers, Kilby had 14 goals and 30 points in 44 games.

He was also played every game in the Calgary