The regular season is coasting to a quiet ending in Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League action with three of the four playoff positions now locked in.
The Morrisburg Lions are doing their part in providing some upsets, but a 5-4 win over the third place Hawks in Winchester, Friday night and a 6-5 overtime loss to the second place Alexandria Glens on home ice Saturday night, didn’t do much to affect the standings of either of the two.
The results of the two weekend games did help to add three points to the Lions season for 22 points with five games left to be played.
The Vikings command the St. Lawrence division with 66 points, while the Alexandria Glens and the Winchester Hawks are looking at second and third spots respectively for a meeting in the first round of playoffs.
The Char–Lan Rebels are in fourth spot with 33 points, and the Akwesasne are five points back with 28. The Wolves continue to chase the Rebels for the fourth spot, but are now starting to run out of games.
Friday night’s game in Winchester was an easy going event with just four minor penalties assessed, two to each team and none in the third period.
The Lions charged onto the Winchester ice, and Alex Sifton got it started at 4:18 assisted by Michael Paquette.
Jacob Guillot (from Jacob Kendrick and Jordan Smail) made it 2-0 Lions at 15:13.
Then at 17:56 of the first period, Josh Stubbings put the Hawks on the scoreboard to tighten the gap to 2-1.
Just over three minutes into the second period, the Hawks Costa Georgitsos collected a short-handed goal to even the game, 2-2, and the tie held until early in the third period, when Georgitsos struck again to put the Hawks ahead 3-2.
But the Lions came charging back.
Jacob Kendrick got is started with an unassisted goal at 3:19 of the third period to tie the game 3-3. Then it was over to Michael Paqeutte, (from Cole Fowler) who put the Lions up 4-3.
At 8:29, Landon Veenstra (Jacob Guillot) stretched it to 5-3.
Steve Ray Adams got one more for the Hawks to cut the gap to 5-4, but that was it. The Lions, with a solid performance from Brett Hahn in net, hung on for the 5-4 win.
In Morrisburg on Saturday night, the Glens went up 2-0 in the first period on goals by Bradley Gabbour and David Cyr.
Eric Evans (from Dakota Blacksmith) got one back at 14:49 of the second period, but at 16:07 the Glens recouped their two-goal advance with Gabbour’s second goal of the game against Hahn.
Jacob Guillot (from Ryan Griffin) brought the score to 3-2 on the Lions power play with just over two minutes left in the second period.
The third period opened when Eric Evans, assisted by Jacob Guillot and Ryan Griffin, struck to tie it 3-3.
Then it was back to the Glens for another pair from Adam Cooke and Bradley Gabbour, but the Glens, couldn’t hold on to their 5-3 advantage.
This time it was penalties that would prove costly to the Glens, as the Lions collected a pair of power play goals, from Tanner Hummel at 15:58 and Eric Evans at 17:48 to tie the game 5-5.
The tie held to force the overtime and the win went to the Glens with a Gabriel Cuillerier goal just 1:22 in.
A makeup game scheduled between the Lions and the Akwesasne Wolves last week was again postponed. This week the Lions are on the road for games against the Casselman Vikings and the Char-Lan Rebels.
The regular season wraps up for teams in the St. Lawrence Junior B division with the final games to be played Sunday, February 15.
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