South Dundas Novice B Lions Win East Division Championship

After giving up four short-handed goals in a 9-2 loss to the Vikings in Casselman Thursday night, the Morrisburg Junior B Lions turned it around on home ice Sunday, for a 7-1 win over the St. Lawrence Division’s third place Alexandria Glens.

The Lions went up 1-0 in the first period against the Glens, Sunday with an unassisted goal from Chris Rutley, his first since his return to the Lions lineup a week ago.

In the second, Philippe Paquette beat Lions goaltender Mikael Dion to answer for the Glens.

But then, according to Lions coach Thom Racine, a strange thing happened, which seemed to bolster the Lions and completely shake up the Glens.

“Rutley scored a real beauty from his belly and from that point they seemed to disintegrate, while we picked up momentum. He was tripped and as he slid on his belly he got control of the puck and scored.”

After that it was a power-play frenzy for the Lions, as the Glens took one penalty after another and the Lions took advantage to score another five counters. Four of them were while they were on their power play.

“Four power-play goals were something we needed. And they came from all over. It was a good team effort.”

Drew Veenstra (unassisted) scored the first of the power play markers late in the second period to give the Lions a 3-1 advantage.

Then brother Clarke matched the effort with an unassisted counter at 1:38 of the third before providing the assist for a Marc Antoine Kamel power-play counter and a 5-1 Lions advantage.

Sylvester Bzdyl scored from Zach Seguin at 10:11 and Ryan Dunbar finished it off from Bzdyl and Zach Seguin on the Lions power play at 16:29.

“We played it like a game seven,” said Racine. “We knew we had to win if we wanted to keep within reach of CharLan.”

“We needed to play well and we needed to play smart and we did both on Sunday.”

In fact, even with the win, the Lions now find themselves six points behind the fourth place Rebels who are on a run. This past weekend, the Rebels added another pair of victories over Brockville, 5-3 and Akwesasne 4-2 as they set their sights on third place currently held by the Glens.

The first place Winchester Hawks have a slim three-point edge over the Casselman Vikings.

Thursday night in Casselman, the Lions just couldn’t get it together.

They trailed the Vikings 3-1 after the first period and 5-1 after two.

Michael Paquette scored their lone first period goal on the power play from Alex Steingruber and Michael Keenan. Clarke Veenstra added their second late in the third with help from Michel Lefebvre and Keenan, again on the Lions power -play.

In fact, the Lions power play was a big factor throughout the match as the Vikings collected four of their goals while they were short-handed.

“We weren’t paying enough attention. We forgot about Casselman’s ability to sneak in behind you and steal the puck.”

Mikael Dion started in the Lions net and was relieved midway into the second period by Ryan Cooper.

“I pulled Mikael after four goals and let Ryan play,” said Racine. “Mikael was disappointed, but he bounced back and gave us a great game Sunday. He was awesome on Sunday.”

Coming up this Friday night, December 9, the Lions host Brockville at 8:30 p.m. Sunday night, December 11 they are on the road to Athens to take on the Rideau’s second place Aeros.

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The South Dundas Midget B Rep Lions have been busy racking up points in the win column, their only blemish coming in a tournament in Prescott when they lost their opening game to the Kemptville Panthers, 2-0.

But they cleared up that issue, and then some, when they worked their way through the Sunday, November 24 tournament to meet the Panthers for a rematch in the championship game and came out the winners by a 3-0 count.

In addition to the tournament championship, the Lions posted league wins 2-0 over Brockville last Wednesday night, November 27th and 7-1 over  Alexandria last night, December 2. They are now undefeated in 11 consecutive league games.

Their busy schedule all started when the Lions kicked off South Dundas Minor Hockey Lion’s Day event on Friday, November 22 with a 3-3 exhibition game tie against a visiting Leitrim squad.

Scoring for the Lions in the tie were Jordan Smail with two goals and Nash Nesbitt with a single. 

The Prescott tournament was played in a round robin format and used a point system, with each period won worth one point and the game result worth two. With five points up for grabs in each game, the Lions fell behind in their opening game, 2-0 loss to Kemptville.

They recovered in game two with a 4-1 win over the Pontiac Lions, to pick up five points and force their way into the championship final for a rematch with the undefeated Panthers.

Providing the four goals against Pontiac were Nick Lalonde, Evan Mullin, Josh Black and Cameron Michels. Josh Martineau was in net for the win. 

Nesbitt, Jordan St. Louis, Black and Lalonde picked up assists.

The Lions skated into the championship final looking for revenge for their opening game 2-0 loss, and to get it they put together a complete game of hockey. The Lions featured tight defence and aggressive forechecking, and they were rewarded for their efforts with a 3-0 victory.

Goaltending was shared between Martineau and Zack Frawley.

After a scoreless first period, the Lions knocked the wind out of the Panthers with a pair of goals less than one minute apart in the second period.

Nick Lalonde started it with help from St. Louis and Jordan Smail, and Spencer Heldens (from Tanner Hummel and Toby Mullin) added to it for a 2-0 Lions lead heading into the third period.

Early in the third, Riley Black put the icing on the cake with help from Riley Barry for the 3-0 Lions win for the tournament championship.

In league action, the Lions were in Brockville on Wednesday, November 27th where they blanked their hosts 2-0. Zack Frawley was in the Lions net for the shut out.

The Lions dominated the play, out-shooting Brockville 29-18 and keeping the puck in their end throughout much of the contest.

The Lions were also called for the Lions share of penalties, 11 to Brockville’s six, but the penalty killers did a great job and in fact killed off three, five-on-three Brockville power plays.

After the scoreless first period, Tanner Hummel counted a second period goal on a scramble in front of the Brockville net with help from Trey Suddard and Jordan Smail. 

Riley Black made it 2-0 in the third period thanks to a great pinch by Jordan Smail at the blue line. After gaining the puck Smail deked around a Brockville defenceman and made a beautiful pass to Black.

Monday night, December 2, the Lions were in Alexandria where they picked up a lop-sided 7-1 win. 

The last time the two teams met the game ended in a 4-4 tie. This time out the Lions fore-checked relentlessly and took advantage of their turnovers.

The Lions led 1-0 after the first period on a Jordan St. Louis goal, and in the second Aaron Smith counted two while Cameron Michaels and Jordan Smail were good for singles.

Tanner Hummel and Drew Minish finished it off in the third period.

Josh Martineau, who was in net for the win, had his shutout spoiled by a deflected shot.

The South Dundas Midget B Lions will be back in action this Thursday night in Morrisburg, at 8 p.m. against South Stormont.

[…]

In mid December, Morrisburg Junior B Lions’ captain Matthew Ouimet, 22, had to put his love for hockey aside,and consider his health and his future.

In a mid-December game, the talented defenceman, an anchor for the local team, took a hit, “not a severe hit and not a dirty hit”, but a hit that resulted in a concussion. 

It wasn’t his first, so he knew immediately what was happening.

 When he gets a concussion Matthew explains, “I feel very lost right after the hit, and I feel nauseous if it’s bad enough. Sometimes there is memory loss and it’s not clear to me what’s happened.”

Ouimet started playing hockey at the age of four in the Cumberland house league. At the age of 10, he tried out for the Cobras of the Eastern Ontario AA, and then at age 16 he was drafted to the Central Junior Hockey League.

Over the next three years, he played for the Hawkesbury Hawks, Kemptville 73s and the Kanata Knights.

In 2009, he moved to Junior B and played for the Ottawa Junior Canadian and the Alexandria Glens before coming to the Morrisburg Junior B Lions in a trade in the fall of the 2010-2011 season.

Although he missed half of last season due to a concussion, he wanted to return to the Lions for his final year of junior hockey as an overage player.

The decision ended up giving him just over two months of hockey before he called it quits in December.

Ouimet says he can’t rule out having had concussions while he played minor hockey, but “they started getting severe when I started junior hockey. The first few were pretty severe, and they were from some very dirty hits, blind sides and elbows to the jaw.”

As a defenceman, Matthew says many of the hits that resulted in a concussion occurred in the corners, after the opposing team has dumped the puck in.

After his first couple of concussions, it no longer required a a dirty hit, or even a very severe hit. “As time went on it required less force. They weren’t obviously bad hits, the concussions just came on easier.”

In addition to the immediate symptons of the concussion, Matthew says there were times when after a couple of weeks he was still getting severe headaches and was having trouble concentrating at school.

He admits that when he was hit this past December, he was already at the point where, “I was questioning if I should be risking my whole life.”

Matthew is currently a volunteer with the Clarence Rockland Fire Department, where he is gaining experience to become a full-time firefighter.

“There is a point where you have to look at your future. It was very hard for me to have to stop playing hockey.”

And he admits, “I have enjoyed my time here with the Lions, more than any other team I’ve been with. The coaching staff here is amazing. I absolutely love this team.”

Matthew came to the Lions at time when he was losing his enthusiasm for the game.

“Matt Ouimet is the example of commitment and playing for the love of the game,” says Lions coach Thom Racine. “He played high level hockey all his life and when we got his rights, he was contemplating quitting hockey…too many chances and too many broken promises had clouded his desire to play.”

“I picked him as our captain this year for two reasons: he wanted to play again this year hoping we could string out the late season success of last year; and as a last year player, he wanted to be the team leader, which I knew he could be. The younger kids look up to Matt, and that is important especially when the middle of the pack respects him.”

“I’ve had many tough decisions over my three seasons, but letting Matt go from our roster at the deadline was very tough. But his health was far more important than a dozen hockey games.”

Matthew says he wants to make young players and their parents aware of the symptoms of a concussion. “They could be denying it after they get hit, or just aren’t aware of what is going on.”

He says that when he was a younger player it wasn’t a big deal and hockey teams didn’t talk about it.

But now, with it getting more attention, he wanted to share his experiences and his symptoms.

Since he hung up his skates in December, Matt continues to show his strong character. He attends as many of the Lions games as he can to support his teammates.

Now feeling good and playing a bit of recreational hockey with friends, he says, “I’ll never have hockey out of my life. For sure, I’ll continue to play recreational hockey in my future.”

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