Novice Bs, a little good, a little bad

 

It’s not a good position to be in, but for the second straight year the Morrisburg Junior B Lions find themselves inches away from a St. Lawrence Division playoff spot as they head down the home stretch.

With 10 games left on their schedule including a make-up game against Casselman (due to this past Friday night’s cancellation), the Lions will have to put together some exceptionally good hockey to continue to play past the weekend of February 11-12 when the regular season ends.

After Sunday afternoon’s home-ice loss to the division’s first place Winchester Hawks, 7-2, the Lions are looking at a tough road ahead.

Although they will only meet the Hawks once more, they have three encounters coming up against the equally as tough, second place Casselman Vikings.

They have two games left against the Char-Lan Rebels, the team they are currently trying to catch and overcome for the fourth and final St. Lawrence Division playoff spot.

Last year, at about this time, the charged up Lions reached into their hockey bags to come up with some big wins as they set their sights on a playoff spot. Winning their final seven consecutive encounters it was a Cinderella story as they slipped ahead of the Akwesasne Wolves right at the finish line.

Can they do it again this year? Time will tell. 

Sunday, without regular goaltender Mikel Dion who is sitting out a suspension, the Lions stayed with the Hawks through the first period.

Goaltender Ryan Cooper gave up just one first period counter and that to the Hawks Brent Simms.

The Hawks pulled ahead 3-0 in the second period before the Lions got on board with a Sylvester Bzdyl counter from Michel Lefebvre and Joel Marleau.

The Hawks added another two to close out the second in the lead 5-1.

The Lions final goal was scored  early in the third period on their power play, when Lefebvre and Michael Keenan provided the set up for Alex Steingruber.

The Hawks drew 10 minor penalties and a misconduct while the Lions sat out five minors. Shots on net were equal at 33, and Matt Quirion handled the Hawks goaltending.

The Hawks demonstrated the depth of their bench with a pair of goals from Dustin Tinkler, and singles from Brent Simms, Nevin Guy, Brodie Boulanger, Brandon Belding and Brock Burge. 

Last night, Tuesday, January 17, the Lions had a must-win match against the Char-Lan Rebels.  Coming up this Friday night they are at home to the Akwesasne Wolves. Game time is 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, January 22 they are on the road to take on the Rideau Divison’s second place Gananoque. 

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The Seaway Kickers U18 girls soccer team finished their regular season in first place with a final record of 10 wins and 2 losses. 

On July 30 the Kickers hosted the Nepean City girls soccer team and cruised to a 3-0 shutout win thanks to the keeping of Kailyn Douglas and Jade Millward.  

Kaitlyn Merkley started the Kickers scoring with a beautiful curving shot just inside the post off a nice corner kick by Jessica Hartle.  

The second goal of the game came after a tough battle for the ball by Kelsey Douglas, a good box out by Ashley Smith and a well placed shot by Michaela Morrow.  

The third and final goal was scored by Lesley-Ann Tupper after a nice passing play between Jessica Hartle and Bailey Hass. 

On August 8, the Kickers travelled to Confederation High School to take on the Nepean Hotspurs for another shutout win, this time by a 4-0 count. 

Kelsey Douglas’s hard charging style led to a standout goal after some great teamwork.  

Sarah Gudlaugsson benefitted from a great corner kick from Michaela Morrow for a tap in goal to make it 2-0.

The third counter came from Lesley-Ann Tupper who scored a nice goal after some fancy footwork.  

The fourth and final goal of the game came once again off a corner kick, this time from Jessica Hartle with a nice finish by Sarah Gudlaugsson. 

The regular season final game was played August 13 at Hill Crest High School under the lights on a turf field.  

The Kickers came out charging hoping to end  the season on a high note and did so with a 5-0 victory.

The Kickers got it rolling with a great defensive play by Abby Fawcett from a nice pass to Jessica Hartle who fed Kelsey Douglas for a great shot to start the game off.  

Goal number two was off a great corner kick with a header finish by Sarah Gudlaugsson and that was followed when Jessica Hartle sent another nice corner kick to Sarah Gudlaugsson for another nice finish.  

The next counter was all Lesley-Ann Tupper with a nice decoy by Kaitlyn Geurkink, which gave Tupper the room to dangle and dribble the ball in for a cheeky goal.   

The Kickers final goal started with some nice passing between Ashley Smith and Michaela Morrow and finished with a nice shot by Kelsey Douglas.  

Coach Dave Hartle has been very pleased with the defensive play of the midfielders and defenders as it takes a team effort for a win and an even better effort to finish the season with three straight shutouts.  The Seaway Kickers have their year-end tournament August 18, in Kemptville, with their first game at 10 a.m.

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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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