Junior Lion keeps it close, but lose two

 

The Morrisburg Junior Lions opened the 2013/14 hockey season with a pair of losses, to the Alexandria Glens, 7-5 Friday night, and the Winchester Hawks 7-4 on home ice Saturday night. 

Friday night in Alexandria, the Lions held the Glens to a 2-1 first period lead and tied the game early in the second period. But three unanswered second period goals from the Glens’ Ryan Sabourin, Gabriel Cuillerier and Adam Cooke gave the Glens a commanding advantage heading into the third.

The Lions won the third frame, 3-2, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Glens’ early lead.

Scoring for the Lions were Landon Veenstra, unassisted at 7:23 of the first period, and Justin Lefebvre, unassisted at 3:16 of the second period.

Dallas Blacksmith scored on the Lions power play, 1:04 into the third period, and at 4:22 Brodie Barkley connected, unassisted, to cut the Glens’ advantage to 5-4.

Bradley Gabbour made it 6-4 Glens at 5:39, and Connor MacLeod stretched their lead to 7-4 at 13:20.

Michael Paquette scored the Lions final counter, unassisted, with 49 seconds left on the clock.

Rookie goaltender Keiran Weir saw 30 minutes of action in the Lions net and was replaced by veteran goaltender John Gilmer.

Callum Cassidy-Matthews earned the win for the Glens.

Friday night on home ice the Lions again tried to play catch up hockey, but were unsuccessful in a 7-4 loss to the Hawks.

The Hawks managed just one goal in the first period, that from the stick of Austin Rothe.

The Hawks collected big time in the second period going up 4-0, before the Lions got them stopped with a Justin Lefebvre counter (assisted by Dallas Blacksmith and Jacob Kendrick) at 8:29 of the frame.

Josh Stubbings counted once more for the Hawks, and the Lions Paquette collected goal number two (assisted by Zack Renfrew and Justin Rutley) at 17:18 to end the second period 5-2 Hawks.

The Lions regrouped to start the third period with goals from Dallas Blacksmith (Cole Fowler) at 2:24 and Jacob Kendrick (Jordan Smail and Fowler) 8:33.

This cut the gap to 5-4 and that’s the way it stayed until late in the frame when the Hawks put two more into the empty Lions net for the 7-4 win.

Weir, who started in the Lions net was relieved by Gilmer.

Daylon Courchene saw action for the Hawks. 

The Lions were assessed seven minor penalties and one misconduct, while the Hawks sat out eight minors and were assessed four misconducts.

Coming up this weekend, the Lions will be at home on Sunday, afternoon, September 28, to the Char-Lan Rebels. Game time is 2:30 p.m.

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