The 19th Hole

 

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.

[…]

 

With 11 goaltenders, 12 defenceman and 26 forwards in camp, Morrisburg Junior B Lions general manager Kevin Casselman, says the coaching staff has some tough decisions ahead.

The Lions opened their 2013 training camp in Spencerville, two weeks ago, on Sunday, August 18.

Their training camp schedule runs until this Sunday, September 8 and when it is ended they will have been on the ice 11 times, seven of them in pre-season games.

“We’ve had a great turn out with approximately 50 players,” says Casselman. “With all of the late season moves we made last year, it really left us with just eight veterans returning to camp, and another seven players attending who finished the season with us as late arrivals or affiliates. That puts our returning number at approximately 15 players.”

Also returning this year, for his second season is head coach Dan Frawley. New to the bench are associate coach Andrew Scott and assistant coach Mark Evans.

“We have been very pleased with the quality of the camp,” says Casselman. “The coaches were very busy in the recruitment stages, and now have some very difficult decision to be made within the next week.”

Casselman says Lions fans will certainly be seeing some added size and speed in the lineup this year.

Overagers in camp include Drew Veenstra and Michel Lefevbre, both of whom were with the Lions last season. (Lefevbre did get a late season release for playoff purposes, but remained Lions property.)

Riley Nicolaasen who was signed late last year is looking for a roster position as is Brandon Chaffe who was acquired in a trade with the Westport Rideaus.

A very welcome return as an overager is former Lion Christian Leger who now has three seasons of Junior A experience under his skates having played with both Ottawa and Gloucester.

Veteran goaltender Ryan Cooper is in camp along with John Gilmer who was affiliated to the Lions last season while playing AAA Major Midget with the Canadian International Hockey Academy in Rockland.

Goaltender Brandon Chilton from Moose Factory, Ontario has ‘looked good in camp’ along with Robert Weidman from Quebec and locals Zach Frawley (South Dundas Minor Hockey), Ryan Troutman, Liam O’Donahue and Eric Mantha.

Looking to reclaim their spots on the blueline are Sam Hodgson and Drew Veenstra.

Ty Hodgson from Morrisburg, who started last season with the Lions, before moving to play AAA with the Upper Canada Major Midget Cyclones is also on the ice.

New to the camp are Dan Fyckes (6’ 2” from Norwood, New York), Zach Belaire, 6’2” right-hander (played last year with AAA Major Midget Ottawa Sens), Evan Mantha (16-year-old Cornwall Colts draft pick) and local prospect Kristian Palmer (6’4”).

From Morrisburg comes 16-year-old Andrew Jarvis. Protected by the Brockville Braves, Jarvis has been returned from the Braves ‘for a season of development.’ A smooth skater, ‘Andrew brings a heads-up style of play’.

Looking for spots up front are returning players Clark Veenstra, Taylor Eamon, Nicholas Pilon, Michael Paquette, Ryan Dunbar and Zach Seguin.

Local player, Shane Woolsey (Iroquois area) is looking good. A 16-year-old, Woolsey was protected by the Kemptville 73s Jr. A and has been returned to the Lions for development.

The Lions are also looking at two Americans, Tyler Young from Massena and Robbie Scott from Potsdam.

Also still in camp are Isaac Brownlee and Peter Ketcheson who gained experience last year, Alex Kidd of Ottawa, Patrick Picard from Hearst, Ontario, Harry Wyss of Russell, Brian Landry of Cornwall, Kyle Adams of Morrisburg and Brandon Mullin.

The Junior B Hockey season is now just one week away from opening.

The Lions will kick off their schedule on the road, when they take on the Alexandria Glens in their barn on Friday, September 13 at 8 p.m.

For their home opener, the Lions will host the Winchester Hawks on Saturday, September 14. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

The Lions coaching staff will be looking at the players in pre-season game tonight (Wednesday) September 4 against the Brockville Tikis at the Brockville Memorial Centre, and again this Saturday, September 7 at the Benson Center in Cornwall, when they host the Stittsville Royals at 3 p.m.

[…]

 

The excitement and anticipation was high for Luke Whitteker and the Whitteker Motorsports team last weekend (July 21-22) as they traveled to Kenly, North Carolina for Luke’s pavement racing debut at Southern National Motorsports Park. 

Luke arrived in North Carolina on Wednesday, and spent the night settling in, and preparing for a busy weekend.  

On Thursday, he went to the Race 101 shop, to scale the car, and load it in the hauler, getting ready for a day of practice on Friday, leading up to Saturday night’s race.  

Luke had three sessions on the track on Friday, and was gaining more speed and getting more comfortable in the car each time.

“We made a few practice runs here so far, and the car feels good so far,” says Whitteker.  “Hopefully the rain will stay away, and we can have a good day here tomorrow for our debut in the Race 101 car”.

On Saturday, Whitteker was back at Southern National Motorsports Park for some more practice, and then the race later in the day.  

Like the previous day, the more laps he ran, the more comfortable he was inside the Race 101 car.  While he was focused on the task at hand, Whitteker also kept an eye on the weather that was threatening to play a factor in his debut.

“We were really starting to get some speed, and get comfortable in the car after the second practice session,” said Whitteker.  “We just need to make a few tweaks to the setup to get the car a little better.  Unfortunately, it looks like rain soon, so we will see what happens here in the next little bit”.

As forecasted, the skies opened up just before final practice, and the race had to be postponed.  

Whitteker will return to Southern National Motorsports Park on August 11th for another attempt.  He will also race on September 29th.

[…]