The South Dundas Atom B Lions used a 4-1 victory over the Smith Falls Bears here Sunday, February 1, to reclaim their division’s first place standing.
The Lions continue to battle for the division’s top spot with Kemptville 1 who had pulled back into the lead by a single point early in the week.
Sunday’s win pushed the Lions ahead by a point. Kemptville has 29 points with three games left while the Lions have 30 points and two games remaining.
The Lions got off to a poor start on Sunday against the Bears, and couldn’t get their feet moving until the second period.
Smiths Falls opened the scoring on a partial breakaway 52 seconds in when Adam Hustins shot got passed Lions goaltender Mateo Lacroix.
Three minutes later, the Lions were called for tripping. Zach Scarbeau and Owen Patterson did a good job killing it off along with the help of defencemen Jack McCaan and Alek Larocque to prevent the Bears from increasing their lead.
Smiths Falls had a glorious opportunity to go up 2-0 early in the second when it looked like a rebound was going to get hammered into the back of the net, but out of nowhere Lacroix put the paddle of his stick down to take a sure goal away. The big save served as the Lions wake-up call.
Monty Dejong tied the game at 2:26 of the third period assisted by Sam Connors.
Then, less than one minute later, Owen Patterson drew a Bears penalty with his heavy forecheck.
At 2:47, Sean Nicolaassen made the Bears pay for taking that penalty, when he picked up the puck inside his blue line, blew past a defender at the red line and went in alone on Louis Legare.
He faked a forehand, then went backhand to give the Lions their first lead at 2-1.
Quade Mullin made two of several key saves during the third.
The Spencer Barclay, Connors, and Dejong line used a good forecheck to put the Lions up 3-1 with 5:02 left on the clock. They applied the pressure on the forecheck, Barclay grabbed a loose puck and then centered to Dejong who made no mistake.
It looked like the Bears were finally going to solve Mullin late in the game, during a scramble around the goal, but then out of nowhere defenceman Stefan Kronstal stacked his own pads, slid through the crease to make the save and knock the puck out of harms way.
At just over one minute left, Cam Shaver passed the puck out front to a wide open Dryden Buter who scored the Lions fourth goal.
Next action for the South Sunda Atom B Lions is this Thursday, February 5, on the road to Akwesasne.
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