The season and the Junior B Lions winding down

 

After leading the Alexandria Glens 3-1 at the end of the first period, the Morrisburg Junior B Lions were able to hold on to a slim 4-3 edge after 40 minutes of play here Sunday afternoon. But then along came the third period.

That’s when the Glens turned it up a notch to out-score the Lions 8-1 and claim an 11-5 win. 

“I just don’t understand,” said coach Thom Racine. “We played two good periods of hockey. I just don’t know how we can lose our composure like that on one goal.”

That goal came at 3:29 of the third period and tied the game 4-4. From then on it was down hill all the way for the Lions who are looking less and less likely to earn the St. Lawrence Division’s fourth and final playoff position.

“Obviously, Alexandria sat in their dressing room between periods with their 12 players and said ‘enough is enough’. They (Alexandria) don’t have a physical team, they just out-skilled us. We were awful in the third period,” said Racine.

The 11-5 come-from-behind Alexandria win followed on the heels of a crushing 8-0 Hawks victory in Winchester on Friday night.

“Friday night we played a really good first period, but after that they just destroyed us,” said Racine.

The game was scoreless in the first period, and in the second the St. Lawrence Division’s first place Hawks went up 4-0. They dropped their final four goals, against Lions goaltender Mikael Dion, in the third period.

In a demonstration of their offensive depth, eight Hawks players accounted for the goals. They were Nevin Guy, Ramsey Wheeler, Dylan Chessell, Josh Stubbings, Brandon Belding, Aaron Dickenson, Dustin Tinkler and Graham Loyst.

The Hawks sat out eight minor penalties and a 10 minute misconduct while the Lions were assessed five minors.

Sunday afternoon in Morrisburg, Ryan Dunbar, Michael Poapst and Michael Paquette accounted for the Lions three first period goals. Adam Simpson answered for the Glens to keep the count at 3-1.

Then in the second period, the Glens got a pair of counters from Shane Kitchen while Chris Rutley struck on the Lions power play. 

The period ended with the Lions in the lead 4-3.

In the third period the Glens totally dominated the play with four consecutive unanswered goals as they headed for the comeback 11-5 win.

Michel Lefebvre scored the Lions fifth and final goal, unassisted,  at 8:10 of the third period.

The Lions were in action last night, Tuesday in Williamstown in a makeup game against the Char-Lan Rebels. They went into the game trailing the fourth place Rebels by five points and, to have even a remote chance of catching them, the Lions had to produce a win.

The Lions have four games, plus a makeup game against the Casselman Vikings, left on their schedule.

This Thursday, February 2 they are in Casselman for a 7:30 p.m. match and Saturday night, February 4 they travel to Alexandria.

The Winchester Hawks have now wrapped up the St. Lawrence Division’s top spot with 67 points on 33 wins, four losses and one tie. The Casselman Vikings are in second spot with 56 points and the Glen are guaranteed third place with 49.

In the bottom half of the division the Revels hold fourth place with 28 points, the Lions ar next with 23 and the Akwesasne Wolves are in sixth place with 21.

The much-improved Akwesasne Wolves defeated the Vikings, 4-2 Sunday, to give themselves the opportunity to climb out of the St. Lawrence Division basement.


Discover more from Morrisburg Leader

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Since you’re here…

… Thanks for reading this article. Local news is important. We hope that you continue to support local news in your community by reading The Leader, online and in print. Please consider subscribing to the print edition of the newspaper. Click here to subscribe today.

Subscribe to Email Alerts

Enter your email address to subscribe to Email Alerts and receive notifications of new posts by email whenever The Leader publishes new content on our website.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply