The Kamloops Blazers unveiled their new scoring sensation, and he brought his own cheering section with him Saturday night to CN Centre.
Seventeen year old Lyndon Martell looked anything but a rookie playing a regular shift for the Blazers at right wing. He gave his family and friends from Prince George plenty to cheer about as the game's first star, scoring two goals to lead the Blazers to a 6-2 preseason win over the Prince George Cougars.
"I've had quite a bit of success so far in the preseason and I was coming off a five-game point streak and just wanted to have a solid game and had all my family watching," said Martell, who played in the BCHL last season for the Prince George Spruce Kings. "I was pretty excited to come home and it was great that I got a goal right away in the first period, and then I got another one."
Martell opened the scoring 11:08 into the first period with the Blazers on a two-man power play. His low shot from a sharp angle got past a diving Greg Fraser, who had broken his stick and was trying for the block, but the puck caught the corner of the net behind James Priestner. The Cougars had two more in the penalty box in the second period when Martell tapped in a goalmouth pass for his second goal.
"I was dreaming of this when I was younger -- I always wanted to play for the Cougars but once you get older you just want to play for a team in the Dub," said Martell, a six-foot-one, 175-pound native of Smithers who moved to Prince George when he was five.
"Soon as you come hope you want to show them what you've got and show them what they missed out on. I've always been able to score, and just want to do that and work on my defensive game."
See Monday's Citizen for more
