The South Dundas Atom B House Lions’ bid for the UCMHL playoff crown came to an end in game three of their four point series against the Char-Lan Rebels on Morrisburg ice, Tuesday, March 3 with a 3-2 loss.
The semi-final series kicked off in Morrisburg, on Saturday, February 28 with a 4-2 win by the Rebels.
The series travelled to Char-Lan for game two, where the Lions put it together with a 6-1 win and push the series to the third game back home in Morrisburg.
“Usually the odds are in your favour when you score the first goal, but it turned out to be a curse in this series,” said coach Brian Shaver. “The team who scored first in each of the three games ended up losing that game.”
“We carried the momentum from game two (6-1 win), and got off to a good start in game three,” said Shaver.
Dryden Buter opened the scoring at 6:15 of the first from Cam Shaver and Jack McCann. That’s the way things would stay until 5:09 of the second when Monty Dejong put the Lions up by two, assisted by Spencer Barclay.
Then things took a turn for the worse when the Lions got themselves into some penalty trouble.
The Rebels’ Riley Tessier cashed in on the power play with 2:39 left in the period, assisted by Harry Rozon and Avery Teodoro, to pull within one.
The Lions spent the last minute of the second and the first minute of the third killing off another Rebels power play.
The Rebels used the momentum built up from the power play to tie the game 2-2 early in the third period and it remained tied despite both teams trading power-play opportunities.
Then with just 1:06 remaining the Rebels Tessier broke in on a breakaway and made a perfect shot upstairs to give the Rebels their first lead of the game, 3-2.
With goalie Quade Mullin pulled for an extra attacker in the dying minute, the Lions threw everything they had left at Rebels goaltender Michael Chaput. The frantic action included a post from Shaver, and a goal line stop on Sean Nicolaassen.
The Rebels got their final goal into the empty Lions net.
Despite the disappointment of losing the series, the Lions are proud of their accomplishments this year. This includes a first place East Division regular season finish, being the second highest scoring team in the league, and winning the Perth tournament.
The Lions are now looking forward to ending the year on a positive note at the Kids for Kids tourney in Kingston at the end of the month!
Be the first to comment