Atom B Reps shut out Wolves in last win of the season

After the 62 competing players completed regulation play for the annual Morrisburg Golf Club’s Men’s Open on Saturday, June 21, a foursome found themselves heading back to the ninth tee.

The foursome consisted of Morrisburg Golf Club members Randy Casselman, Bob Mann and Matt O’Neil along with Lombard Glen golfer Travis Coughlin all of whom finished the 18 holes of play tied for low gross with 76’s to force a playoff.

After the first hole of sudden death play, Casselman and Mann put away their clubs with bogey fives. Coughlin stayed alive by dropping a 12 foot putt for a par, and O’Neil went down for a four with two putts.

Second time around, the momentum swung to Coughlin when O’Neil put his drive out of bounds on the par four, dog leg left, 305-yard ninth hole. Coughlin played safe for his par to claim the 2014 Men’s Open championship.

Coughlin played a steady game throughout the 18 holes. He turned the corner with a 38 and brought it home with a matching 38. After nine holes, O’Neil was one stroke back with a 39 to which he added a two over par 37.

Bob Mann’s 76 gave him the low net win in A flight with a 66 net score.

Following the 76s to a fabulous Open prize table was a 77 shot by Prescott golfer Tony Gilson and a pair of 78s shot by Rob Kimberly of Prescott and Paul Nooyen of Ottawa Hylands.

The final A flight golfer to break 80 was 2013 defending champ Lance LePage with a 79. LePage won the tournament in 2013 with a 73.

Leading the way in B flight was Lee Beaupre who won the flight with a 77, two strokes better than defending B champ Dave McClenaghan with his 79 total. The 79 gave McClenaghan the B net win with a 66 net score. Both are Morrisburg club golfers.

B flight was a strong Morrisburg affair with the next four winners all from the host club.

Donnie Mabo and Mike Laurin finished tieds with 81’s and Shawn Hummell shot an 84. Larry Gallinger tied Upper Canada’s Jim Beckstead with an 85.

The C flight win went to Will Mann of the Kingston area with an 87.

He was chased by Morrisburg golfers Steve Boucher with an 88 and Doug Warner with an 89.

Warner’s 89 gave him the C flight net championship with a 65 net.

Nationview golfers Ritchie Pitt (89) and Gary Smith (90) were next up. 

[…]

Although Friday’s snowstorm caused the cancellation of two St. Lawrence Division Junior B Hockey games, there was enough weekend action to settle the playoff picture.

One of the two cancellations included the Lions final home game against the Akwesasne Wolves. 

Saturday night, the Lions ended their season on the road, with a 6-1 loss to the Wolves in the A’nowara’ko:wa Arena.

As was known for quite some time, the Casselman Vikings claimed the St. Lawrence Division pennant with 66 points on 31 wins and seven losses.

Second spot went to the Char-Lan Rebels with 47 points on 22 wins and 17 losses.

The big story of the season was that of the Akwesasne Wolves who went from last year’s last place division finish to third spot overall this season.

The Wolves posted 21 wins, 17 losses and three overtime losses for a 45 point finish.

Collecting fourth place, and the final playoff spot, are the Winchester Hawks at 34 points.

Alexandria, with 16 wins took fifth place and the Lions, with just seven wins and one overtime loss, were in the division’s basement position with 15 points. 

With the final results in, the playoffs will see the Winchester Hawks challenge the first place Vikings while the Char-Lan Rebels and Akwesasne Wolves will square off.

The Winchester-Casselman series kicks off this Thursday night, February 14, in Casselman, and returns to Winchester, Friday night, February 15 at 8 p.m. Game three is scheduled for Sunday, February 17, in Casselman, starting at 7:30 p.m.

For the Lions, it was a slow crawl to the finish line, but they made it Saturday night against the Wolves. 

Knowing weeks ago that they would not make the playoffs, the Lions team management freed their overage players and worked out (temporary) deals for several others to join other teams for the opportunity to play in the upcoming playoffs.

As a result the remaining core players were joined by affiliate players who gained valuable experience as the Lions finished out the season. 

Saturday night against the Wolves, the Lions were unable to get anything going. They trailed 3-0 after the first period and 5-0 heading into the third.

Mikael Dobson counted their lone goal, to spoil the Wolves Corey Garrow’s shut out, with just over one minute left in the game.

Taylor Eamon and Martin Lavallee provided the assists.

Marc-Antoine Kamel led the Wolves scoring with three goals and Oakley Thomas, Alex Conroy-Terrance and Dillon Barr added singles.

The Wolves out shot the Lions 63-23.

[…]

–With the help of nationally and internationally acclaimed curler Lynn Kreviazuk, the Morrisburg Curling Club delivered its game to potential young curlers at Morrisburg Public and St. Mary-St. Cecilia schools on Monday. And it was a lot of fun.

Kreviazuk, 23, along with her older sister Allison and younger sister Cheryl, began curling in Ottawa in the Little Rocks program. From that start, she became a member of teams skipped by Rachel Homan, Clancy Grady and Allison Flaxey and has, under her broom, a Canada Winter Games championship, and various national championships at the Junior and Bantam curling levels.

Most recently, in February of this year, she was a member of Team Canada skipped by Breanne Menkin, who won the Universiade Silver Medal in Spain.

Monday, Kreviazuk delivered The Curling Canada Rocks and Rings program to three grades at each of Morrisburg P.S and SMSC. The program introduces curling to elementary school children by taking the curling rink to the gym in the form of FloorCurl kits which include rocks (on wheels) and target mats.

Kreviazuk, who graduated from Carleton University in December with a political science degree, has been delivering the program  “as part time work throughout university.”

Having started curling at the age of six years, she recommends that children start curling at a young age in the Little Rocks program.

The Rocks and Rings program, “helps to familiarize kids with the sport,” she explains. “A lot of kids might not have any other opportunity to try it. Curling is a great sport and anybody can play…tall, short, male, female. The cost is fairly inexpensive when compared to other sports, and there is very little equipment required.  Everyone and anyone can play.”

Kreviazuk was accompanied to the schools on Monday, by Morrisburg Curling Club president Ruth Kelly and club member Jack Barkley.

The Morrisburg Curling Club has been proactive in recruiting members this season, and Kelly looks forward to growing the membership in the younger age category next year.

“This year we had just Little Rocks, and next year we will have Bantam Curling,” says Kelly who is a Level Three Curling Coach and has coached at International curling levels. “Ian and Kathy Wilson have been running our Little Rocks program, and they have been very successful with it. The kids have stayed with it, and some will be graduating to bantam next year.”

Kelly too promotes the game as “an excellent sport for children. It’s full of etiquette and teaches social skills. It’s played in a safe environment and provides an overall good learning experience. Even at the young level, the curlers sit down with their opponents after a game.”

Following the presentations at the schools, Kreviazuk dropped by the Morrisburg Curling Club to meet and discuss coaching strategies with a number of club members who have volunteered to assist in the Curling Canada Getting Started for Adults program which the club will launch on Monday nights next season.

This has been prompted by Kelly who ran a casual Monday evening program for non-curlers, this past year. 

“It was a casual drop in and the same group came back each week,” says Kelly. “We learned something new each week. We did one half hour of instruction and then went right into a game. Our first game took two hours to play two ends, but we continued on and it got better. Then at Christmas they all joined leagues in the club. We got 20 new members out of it.”

Kreviazuk met with would-be volunteer instructors for next season’s Getting Started for Adults program. She discussed the program and offered up various tips for coaching with emphasis and tips on how to help new curlers with balance, setup and throwing momentum. 

Kelly stresses that curling clubs today, to be successful, must be proactive in attracting people to curling, and Monday’s presentations by the very talented Kreviazuk were a sweep in the right direction.

[…]