Novice B Demons edge Lions

 

Over the last few years the weather has not been kind to local snowmobilers, but that was not the case on Saturday.

Sunshine and mild temperatures made for a great day for the Riverside Heights Snowmobile Club’s third annual snowmobile show and swap meet.

“We really lucked out with the weather,” said Dave Shaver, club president. “Overnight thunderstorms had us worried, as the success of events like this one are so dependant on the weather, but it ended up being a perfect day.”

Area snowmobile dealers, including Jim’s Performance of Iroquois, Crossings of Prescott and Irwin’s of Cornwall, had displays on site featuring the latest models. “They all had terrific displays,” said Shaver, who was pleased to have such strong support from them.

The vintage and racing sleds made for an impressive display. 

Thirty-nine vintage snowmobiles were on display brought from collectors both locally and from a little farther afield including Brockville, Lanark, Kemptville, North Gower, Toledo and even Shawville, Quebec.

“There were a lot of really rare machines,” said Shaver. “I thought I had seen a lot of different vintage sleds, but there was one there that I had never seen before,”  he said referring to the 1972 Snoblazer.

Twelve trophies were handed out to those judged as the various class winners.

“The organizing committee for the event worked really hard and did a great job,” said Shaver.

“We were able to expand our list of contacts for the future, so we should be able to make it even bigger next year.”

[…]

 

The South Dundas Lions are heading into game one of the Upper Canada Minor Hockey League’s Peewee B House championship final tonight, Wednesday, March 11, in Morrisburg against the Brockville Braves. Game time is 7 p.m.

The Lions eliminated the Alexandria Glens in two straight games on the weekend. They opened the series on home ice on Saturday with a hard-fought, well deserved 3-2 win and then took their game to Alexandria, on Sunday where they turned it up a notch for a 5-1 victory to win the Peewee B House East Division Championship four points to zero.

The win puts them in the UCMHL Championship final against the Braves who tackled and defeated the South Grenville Rangers in two games straight for the West Division Championship.

“We battled Alexandria all year long for first place and beat them on the last day of the regular season to clinch the East Division Title,” said Lions coach Jason Broad following the Lions East Division playoff championship win on Sunday. “I thought if we met them in the playoffs, it would be a tough series.”

“Saturday’s game (3-2 Lions win) was one of the best played games of the whole season. Both teams played very well and the game was highlighted by goaltenders.”

The strong goaltending, Brendan Shaver and Michaela Mustard for the Lions and Alexandre Duval, kept the scorers at bay throughout the first and second periods. All of the scoring occurred in the (18 minute) third period, in a seesaw battle that saw first the Lions score and then the Glens reply.

The winning goal, scored by Jaeden Phifer-Shaver and assisted by Nolan Henry and Ben Lapier with 2:45 left in the game, was the result of a great passing play between the three.

The scoring started early in the third period with Jack Connors the first to meet with success for the Lions with help from Kolby Latullippe.

Connors goal at 1:51 of the third, was followed at 2:28 by the Glen Maxime Pilon to keep the game even at 1-1.

End to end action and some great goaltender saves were featured until 11:22 when Ben Lapier counted the Lions second goal with help from Henry and Owen Fetterly.

Again the Lions lead didn’t last long. The Glens charged back with Andrew MacMaster counting at 14:14 to tie it 2-2.

That set the stage for the Phifer-Shaver winner at 15:15 of the third period.

The series resumed in Alexandria on Sunday, and the Lions turned it up a notch to post a 5-1 victory and sweep the four-point championship series.

“In game two in Alexandria we played even better,” said Broad. “We continued to pressure them offensively, and we broke out with the five goals clinching the series.”

“I’m very proud of the effort we’ve put in, not only in game but in our practices. We continue to focus on the skills of the games as opposed to tactics, and we can see it paying off now.”

In Alexandria, the Lions led 1-0 after the first period on a Jaeden Phifer-Shaver goal assisted by Nolan Henry and Kieran Geurkink.

Henry made it 2-0 Lions, 4:34 into the second period with Phifer-Shaver and Trent Rae assisting, and Phifer-Shaver counted goal number three at 11:39 of the second period with help from Ben Lapier and Jayden Rowe.

The Glens got on the board with a Joseph Robertson goal less than one minute into the third period, but that was it.

The Lions got two more from Lapier (assisted by Phifer-Shaver and Henry) and from Phifer-Shaver (assisted by Henry and Lapier) for the 5-1, East Division Championship win.

After a first round bye, for their first place regular season division finish, the Lions eliminated South Stormont in East Division semi-final playoff action with 8-1 and 4-1 wins.

The five point UCMHL championship series opens tonight, Wednesday, March 11 at 7 p.m. in Morrisburg. Games two and three, according to early information provided, are scheduled to be played immediately following March break, on Monday, March 23 and Tuesday, March 24. Both are scheduled for Brockville, with times yet to be announced. Game four, if necessary, would be back in Morrisburg on Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m.

[…]

 

It’s been several weeks in the making, but the Morrisburg Junior B Lions finally put their fourth stroke in the win column Friday night on home ice against the Brockville Tikis.

The Lions opened their three game week on the road to Casselman, Thursday night, November 1 where they were dealt a crushing 10-2 loss by the St. Lawrence Division second place Vikings.

But Friday night, they got back on the right track to post a 6-3 win against the Tikis.

Then on Sunday, they were handed another loss by the Vikings, but this time they were in the game all the way and gave the Vikings a run for their money in the 5-3 loss (the fifth Viking goal scored in the empty Lions net).

“With the elimination of lapses and some mistakes, Sunday’s game was played very well,” says Lions team manager Kevin Casselman. “With a couple of breaks the outcome could have been much different. It was a well played hockey game. While it was not a win, we felt that we played well enough to have won.”

Sunday’s game started with a 1-1 first period tie. After two periods it was tied 2-2.

Then in the third, the Vikings went up 4-2, but the Lions battled back with a power-play goal at 13:40 from Peter Ketcheson to cut the gap to 4-3.

Despite their hard work, the Lions were unable to put anything more past Vikings goaltender Phillippe Quesnel. The Vikings scored in the empty Lions net after coach Dan Frawley pulled Lions goaltender Mikael Dion in favour of the extra attacker.

Adam Wensink opened the Vikings scoring at 5:22 of the first period on the Vikings power play. 

At 8:13 Michel Lefebvre answered back on the Lions power play with help from Chris Rutley and Sylvester Bzdyl.

Joel Adam gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead at 5:39 of the second period and although it took the Lions a while to answer, Brandon Chaffe did that at 19:19 of the frame with the assists going to Grant Cooper and Curtis Pilon.

A pair of third period goals from Kyle Beauchamp-Lalonde at 9:43 and 11:57 gave the Vikings a two-goal edge.

Ketcheson counted the final Lions goal with help from Bzdyl and Rutley.

Friday night, the Lions came out of the starting gate fast and went up 1-0 against the Tikis with a Peter Ketcheson goal (from Zach Seguin and Ty Hodgson) at 5:24 of the frame.

The Tikis evened it three minutes later, and that held until the final minute of the period when the Lefebvre connected from Rutley and Bzdyl.

We had a team meeting before the game,” said Casselman. “We discussed the fact that we needed to be prepared to start the game and not fall behind. In fact, we came out from the start and played a solid game.”

“Secondly, it was important for us to receive secondary scoring. Affiliate player Peter Ketcheson scored the first goal and Brandon Chaffe had two goals in the game. This took some of the pressure off the line of Bzdyl, Lefebvre and Rutley.”

“As well Brandon (Chaffe) has played well and it was nice to see him rewarded for his hard work. It was nice to see some secondary scoring from other units. That takes away from the opposition’s game plan in shutting down one line.”

The Tikis evened the game five minutes into the second period, but then the Lions took over.

Chaffe got his two goals, the first assisted by Rutley and Bzdyl and the second with help from Grant Cooper and Ty Hodgson.

Then with just a little over a minute left in the period, Michel Lefebvre (from Rutley and Bzdyl) counted on the Lions power play to stretch the advantage to 5-2.

The Tikis got one more against Lions goaltender Ryan Cooper at 5:24 of the third period, and Clarke Veenstra finished it off with an unassisted goal for the Lions at 13:08.

“Clarke is a big time player on our team,” said Casselman. “He has been ill and the virus took its toll, but it was nice to get him back into the lineup. He makes a huge difference.”

Thursday night in Casselman, the Lions managed only two goals against the Vikings from Chris Rutley and Grant Cooper in the second period. The Vikings led 4-0 after the first period and 5-2 after two. Another five unanswered third period counters against Ryan Cooper in the Lions net gave them the 10-2 win.

“It’s a tough rink to play in for sure,” said Casselman. “But we felt the game was not indicative of the score. We didn’t play a good first period and before we knew it, we were down four goals. Some were just plain bad luck, but some were the case of our play.”

“But in the second period we came out and dominated the play for large stretches. As a result we scored a couple of goals.”

Cooper had a busy night in the net giving up the 10 goals on 55 Vikings shots. The Lions, on the other hand, managed only 23 shots against Vikings goaltender Alexandre Michaud.

Coming up this weekend, the Lions are in Alexandria on Friday night, November 9 and on Sunday, November 11 they again host the Casselman Vikings. Game time is 2:30 p.m.

[…]