Lions versus Lions in Novice hockey series

With the two South Dundas Novice C hockey teams owning the top two spots of their Upper Canada east division, it was inevitable that they would meet for the East Division Championship. And that is just what happened over the weekend, with the first place Novice C2 team (coached by Justin Elliott) meeting head on with the C1 team (coached by Jason Martens) in Morrisburg for game one on Saturday and game two on Sunday.

The four point series started with an absolutely thrilling game, Saturday, with both teams bringing their best efforts and ending in a 2-2 tie. Then on Sunday, after another closely played first period, the C2s took over to land a 6-0 victory.

Play was back and forth in game one on Saturday, which brought a great deal of excitement to the close to capacity crowd at the South Dundas arena. 

Scoring was tough as both Rowan McCooeye (Martens Lions) and Owen Conlin (Elliott’s Lions) played an extremely solid game in net for their respective teams. 

The Martens Lions opened the scoring when defenceman Kade VanBeilen took a pass from centre Henry Martens and beat Conlin to grab a 1-0 lead. 

In the second period, Elliott’s Lions started to take over the game and put a lot of pressure on the Martens Lions defence. 

Addyson Lalonde-Thompson tied the game after finishing a beautiful end-to-end rush with a quick shot that beat McCooeye on the blocker side. 

Late in the second period, Elliott’s Lions took the lead, 2-1, on a Kai Morrow goal. 

The play began when the Elliott’a Lions had the C1s hemmed in their zone and were getting great scoring chances. It ended with the goal when Morrow picked up a rebound, off of a shot from Jordan Elliott, and fired it past McCooeye. 

The third period saw end-to-end action that brought the crowd to its feet on multiple occasions. 

The Martens Lions started to counter the Elliott Lions’ attack with rushes of their own, but Conlin stood tall in the net and turned away all shooters. 

Then with less than three minutes left on the clock, Jordan Lowe grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone and headed down the ice where he picked the corner and tied the game, 2-2. 

Both teams pressed in the last few minutes of the game, but neither McCooeye nor Conlin would let any shots by and the game ended in the tie to give each team one point for the four-point series.

Game two was played Sunday afternoon, before another packed house. 

Like game one, the first period saw both teams come out of the gate strong and both teams’ goaltenders had to be sharp. 

The Elliott Lions opened the scoring when Skyler Keeler scored on a rebound off a shot from Thompson. That would be all the scoring in a closely contested opening period. 

The second period was a different story, as the Elliott Lions opened up the offense and never looked back.

Morrow picked up two goals, while Thompson added another to stake the Elliott Lions to a 4-0 lead after the two periods. 

The third period provided more of the same as the C2s finished off a great effort with two goals for Elliott (assist by Thompson) that cemented the 6-0 win. 

A bright spot for the Martens Lions was the play of goalie Rowan McCooeye, who made save after save to keep the score as close as possible. The very busy McCooeye came up big on several break-aways, two on ones and even a three on none. 

Although not as busy as the other end of the ice, Conlin had to come up with some solid saves on several occasions to earn his shutout.

The win gave the Elliott Lions a 3 -1 points lead in the series. 

Game three was played last night, Tuesday, March 8, with the C1s needing a win to stay alive, and the C2s either a tie or a win to claim the East Division playoff championship.