Split Decision for Bantam Bs

  The South Dundas Atom B Rep Lions were the underdogs as they went into their playoff round two against the powerful league leading Char-Lan Rebels, and despite a valiant effort they lost the two […]

 

Although Friday’s snowstorm caused the cancellation of two St. Lawrence Division Junior B Hockey games, there was enough weekend action to settle the playoff picture.

One of the two cancellations included the Lions final home game against the Akwesasne Wolves. 

Saturday night, the Lions ended their season on the road, with a 6-1 loss to the Wolves in the A’nowara’ko:wa Arena.

As was known for quite some time, the Casselman Vikings claimed the St. Lawrence Division pennant with 66 points on 31 wins and seven losses.

Second spot went to the Char-Lan Rebels with 47 points on 22 wins and 17 losses.

The big story of the season was that of the Akwesasne Wolves who went from last year’s last place division finish to third spot overall this season.

The Wolves posted 21 wins, 17 losses and three overtime losses for a 45 point finish.

Collecting fourth place, and the final playoff spot, are the Winchester Hawks at 34 points.

Alexandria, with 16 wins took fifth place and the Lions, with just seven wins and one overtime loss, were in the division’s basement position with 15 points. 

With the final results in, the playoffs will see the Winchester Hawks challenge the first place Vikings while the Char-Lan Rebels and Akwesasne Wolves will square off.

The Winchester-Casselman series kicks off this Thursday night, February 14, in Casselman, and returns to Winchester, Friday night, February 15 at 8 p.m. Game three is scheduled for Sunday, February 17, in Casselman, starting at 7:30 p.m.

For the Lions, it was a slow crawl to the finish line, but they made it Saturday night against the Wolves. 

Knowing weeks ago that they would not make the playoffs, the Lions team management freed their overage players and worked out (temporary) deals for several others to join other teams for the opportunity to play in the upcoming playoffs.

As a result the remaining core players were joined by affiliate players who gained valuable experience as the Lions finished out the season. 

Saturday night against the Wolves, the Lions were unable to get anything going. They trailed 3-0 after the first period and 5-0 heading into the third.

Mikael Dobson counted their lone goal, to spoil the Wolves Corey Garrow’s shut out, with just over one minute left in the game.

Taylor Eamon and Martin Lavallee provided the assists.

Marc-Antoine Kamel led the Wolves scoring with three goals and Oakley Thomas, Alex Conroy-Terrance and Dillon Barr added singles.

The Wolves out shot the Lions 63-23.

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On Saturday, the Morrisburg Curling Club held its annual Heart and Stroke bonspiel. It’s a charity we feel is important to support, and with the fine lunch served by our volunteers, it was, as always, a delightful day. 

It was great to see many families out, and new curlers, as well as others we haven’t seen for a while. 

Thanks to Greta McGann, who, with her committee, ran a highly successful event, raising over $1,000 for the charity and, through the Heart and Stroke Foundation, arranged for a defibrillator for the club. It isn’t hard to operate, but once it’s in place, training will be arranged so that every league has people who can use it. We’ve been lucky in the past, but with a large senior population, this is a great security blanket for us.

Thanks to our supporters, especially Cardinal Flowers, the McIntosh Inn, Valu-mart and Home Hardware. The curlers appreciated all who supported the event in a variety of ways.

As to the curling results, in the early draw, the winners were the Toonders foursome, John, John C., Jason and Candice. There were some tight matches, and some high-scoring games, but all were entertaining. 

Victorious in the second draw were Mahlon Locke, Carolyn and Garry Beckstead, and Paula Locke. There was never a dull moment on the ice, with one of the highlights being the creative way of measuring skip shots in a tiebreaker. Congratulations to our winners.

While the executive will have more open planning meetings on accessibility upgrades to our club, President Mahlon reviewed progress to date. Grants have been won from the Ontario government by way of its Trillium division, and through the Federal government’s Infrastructure Committee. The amount of money is substantial, and will be accessed in a way that will not have the two bodies’ grants to us in conflict.

Our senior men competed in the final Parnell competition of the year last week in Lancaster. Since it’s a two-sheet rink, we’re only allowed to enter one team in the four club event, and after two playoffs, Sid Morrell, Raymond Benoit, Neil Williams and George Rutley emerged as our representative, defeating, Pete Zeran, Sam Locke, Doug Jarvis and Bud Perry for the honour. Despite hard work from Sid’s team, they fell to quartets from Lancaster and a very strong Cornwall squad.

Pete Zeran took teams to two different one-game bonspiels last week as well. With Pete were Karl Duncan, Bud Perry, and Earl Jeacle in the Maxville bonspiel, which they won. Then they were off to Lancaster. This time Pete had Karl Duncan, Eric Johnson and Earl Jeacle with him. They won again, but another winning team had a better score and so our fellows finished second.

     Four of our senior curlers were in Arnprior last week for a 222 bonspiel there. Jack Barkley, Ruth Kelly, Fred “Boomer” Langlotz and Sharon Van Allen won both of their matches against Pakenham teams and finished first. They had high praise for the event, lauding the Valentine’s Day theme and the full-course dinner. Though it was a long drive, our curlers report they had a great day. 

SD&G High School championships were on at the club this Tuesday, and there’s the senior men’s Sullivan bonspiel in Metcalfe to report on next time. 

Good curling to all!

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