Novice B House Lions defeat Rangers

It was a busy weekend for Luke Whitteker and the Whitteker Motorsports team, with events scheduled at Autodrome Granby in Quebec on Friday night, Brockville Speedway on Saturday and Cornwall Speedway on Sunday,

Unfortunately, Mother Nature would once alter their Friday night plans with Granby canceling their racing program early. That gave the team an opportunity to implement a backup plan to return to Mohawk International Raceway, only to wait out a rain delay, and eventually get cancelled there as well.

At Brockville on Saturday night, Whitteker finished sixth in his qualifying heat race, and would have to start the 30 lap main event from 16th place.  Despite an ill-handling car, he was able to climb to 11th place at the checkered flag.

The final stop on the weekend was Cornwall Motor Speedway.  

Whitteker began the night with a second place finish in his preliminary heat race. 

After making some adjustments on the car, Whitteker rolled off the starting grid from third place, and quickly moved to second.  

Whitteker had several restarts on the outside and would challenge for the lead each time, but would end up finishing second.

While the young Iroquois driver has been running as much as he can with the DIRT Modified, attention will soon start shifting to the Race 101 pavement Late Model, as he looks forward to a test session at the end of the month at Southern National Speedway in North Carolina.  

Whitteker will be testing in preparation for his three starts at the track later this summer.

This coming weekend, Whitteker will race at Mohawk International Raceway on Friday night, Brockville Speedway on Saturday, and Cornwall Speedway on Sunday.  

With a great run this past weekend, he will be looking to capture his first win of the 2012 season.

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The South Dundas “Evonik” Atom B Rep Lions continued their unbeaten streak last Tuesday (November 6) with a 3-1 win against the NGS Braves, but it abruptly ended Saturday night (November 10) in a 13-1 loss to the Alexandria Glens.

The Lions were looking to move into a tie for first place (and avenge their opening night 5-1 loss to the Braves) Tuesday night, when they defeated the Braves in Finch 3-1. Holding a 3-0 lead going into the third period, the Lions defended a late push from the Braves, while Lions defenceman Emytt Fetterly was in the penalty box on a tripping penalty. 

With the Braves power play unit on the ice, they got the puck into the Lions end and forced Lions goaltender Brendan Shaver to make a save as he covered it. 

The Braves won the ensuing face-off as Lions centreman Brody Fairbairn battled with Braves forward Makenna Brownlee. The puck found its way to the front of the net and a scramble followed resulting in Seamus Hardy shooting home the puck for a power-play Braves goal. 

The Braves continued to press and the Lions defended with Shaver in the net making some big saves, and Lions defenceman Nathan Verhey making some big plays on the Braves forwards. The Braves finished the game on their power play with Lions Jack Connors serving a roughing penalty. But the Lions defence held, and the game ended in the Lions favour 3-1.

The Lions built their lead on two first period goals, one only a minute twenty into the period when a two on one ended up being converted. 

Jack Connors and Duncan Hutt broke out of their end as Connors carried the puck down the left wing and make a great pass across the slot to Hutt who drove to the net and one timed the puck looking to hit the bottom right corner. However, the puck went wide into the right wing side. 

Hutt and Connors scrambled the play and fed a pass to Jaeden Phifer-Shaver standing at the top of the circle. Phifer-Shaver’s backhand shot made it past Braves goaltender Tyson Zollinger giving the Lions a 1-0 lead.

Late in the first period, the Lions struck again as Ben Lapier picked up a pass in the neutral zone, skated down the right wing and buried a shot past Zollinger for the 2-0 lead. Phifer-Shaver and Nolan Henry picked up the assists. 

In the second, the Lions got the so important three goal lead when Dana Domanko made a defensive zone pass up the right wing boards to Ben Lapier who would beat the Braves defender, while Jack Connors drove up the centre off the ice. 

Lapier beat the last Braves defender and made a beautiful stick to stick pass to Connors who wristed a shot over Zollinger’s glove into the top corner to score a highlight reel goal.

The Lions hosted the Alexandria Glens on Saturday for a battle for first as they both came into the game tied at top spot in the East Division with nine points. 

It turned out to be a game the Lions will need to quickly put behind them as the only highlight on the night in a 13-1 drubbing was when Jaeden Phifer-Shaver buried a backhand home for the Lions only goal of the game.

 The South Dundas “Evonik” Atom B Rep Lions are next in action on Sunday, November 18th in Smiths Falls to take on their West Division rivals the Smiths Falls Bears.

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The South Dundas “Pioneer Gas” Atom B Rep Lions completed a five game weekend with two wins and three losses. 

Following league games Friday night in Long Sault and Saturday night in Morrisburg, the Lions travelled to Cobden on Sunday to play in the Muskrat Atom Tournament. 

With the multiple game weekend the Lions were pushed to the limit and came up a little short in the finals.

In the Tournament “B” Final the Lions matched up against the Valley Storm in a rematch of one of their round robin games in which they lost 6-0. 

The Lions started strong when Emytt Fetterly picked up a puck from behind his own net and passed it to Nolan Henry who quickly moved it out of the end zone and over to Ben Lapier who broke in on the Storm goalie and backhanded a shot home for the 1-0 Lions lead. 

The Storm picked up the pace and took over the game, but Brendan Shaver was strong in the Lions net as he turned away shot after shot to hold the Lions 1-0 lead.

In the second period, the Storm scored on back-to-back plays, 21 seconds apart, to take the lead 2-1. 

The Storm continued to get scoring chances against Lions game Brendan Shaver who was named the Lions MVP in the 5-1 B final loss. 

In their round robin game earlier in the day, the Lions were flat in a 6-0 loss where Ban Lapier was named their game MVP.

In their opening game the Lions faced off against the Clarence-Rockland Castors and had their best offensive game of the year in the 8-3 win. Nolan Henry who led the way with three goals and two assists was named the game MVP.

Scoring the other goals were Ben Lapier with two, Duncan Hutt, Owen Fetterly and Joshua Broad.

In the skills competition, the Lions were represent by Ben Lapier in the Fastest Skater event, second place in his heat. Kieran Geurkink, Brody Fairbairn and Dana Domanko skated in the team event, again finishing second in their heat and then Jack Connors, Jaeden Phifer-Shaver and goaltender Brendan Shaver faced off in the shoot out event. Shaver allowed only one goal and was eliminated, as well as Phifer-Shaver with his two goals. Connors scored three times before advancing to the finals where he won the event in a lengthy final round.

In league action the Lions split the two games losing in Long Sault, 5-3 and defeating Cornwall, 3-1. 

In the Cornwall game, the Lions were down 1-0 early but battled back with two first period goals. 

Lapier opened the scoring after Broad battled for a puck off an offensive draw and got it over to Lapier who shot quickly to beat the Colts goaltender. 

Jack Connors scored shortly on a break away when Owen Fetterly fed Connors the puck as he went in alone and out-skated the Colts defenders.

The Lions played well defensively through the second period as Dana Domanko and Kieran Guerkink continued to win one on one battles with Colts forwards and Shaver was solid in the Lions net. The Lions iced the game in the third when Domanko centred a pass to Lapier who started a two on one with Broad. Lapier skated into the Colts end and centred a pass to Broad who buried his shot on the ice through the five hole for the goal and the 3-1 win.

Friday night, the Lions gave up a 3-2 third period lead for a 5-3 loss to the Selects. 

Lapier scored the lone first period Lions goal with Brody Fairbairn providing the assist. The Selects battled back in the second and took a 2-1 lead, but Broad and Lapier teamed up for a short handed goal to keep it even.

Later in the period on the power play Nolan Henry tipped the puck off a face-off to Jack Connors who wristed a shot off a defender’s stick into the back of the net.

The Selects scored three unanswered third period goals for their 5-3 win.

The South Dundas “Pioneer Gas” Atom B Rep Lions face the Alexandria Glens here on Saturday night at 7 p.m. 

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