CHESTERVILLE – A weekend on the road resulted in three points for the Morrisburg Lions. Morrisburg landed in Metcalfe November 15 to take on the Jets, who sit third in the NCJHL West division.
The Lions fell behind in the first period thanks to a short-handed Jets goal with under four minutes remaining. Under a minute was left in the period when the Lions allowed a second goal. Morrisburg trailed Metcalfe 2-0 after 20 minutes.
Morrisburg battled back in the second period. Newcomer Aronhiawaks Rice scored his debut goal eight minutes in, assisted by Justin Cyr. Rice added to his account with a helper late in the period, setting up Ashton Adams for his tying goal for the Lions. The Lions and Jets were knotted up 2-2 heading into the third period.
Morrisburg’s penalty kill shut down back-to-back power-plays in the middle of the third. This allowed the Lions to keep the momentum going into the final minutes of the game. Under five minutes remained when Lukas Rozon (from Shamus McDonald and Ben Lapier) scored the game-winning goal for Morrisburg. The Lions picked up their third win of the season, a 3-2 comeback. Nick Lyon earned his second win of the season in six starts in goal for Morrisburg this season.
Morrisburg continued their scoring into their Saturday night game against the North Dundas Rockets.
Bennett Harty opened the Lions’ scoring five minutes into the first period, assisted by Josh Broad and Ben Lapier. Morrisburg fended off repeated incursions by North Dundas in their defensive zone for most of the period. The Lions continued to lead the Rockets 1-0 into the second period.
Most of the action in the second period happened in the final nine minutes. Rozon (Lapier, Callum Stevenson) doubled the Lions’ lead. Back-to-back goals by Xavier Plante and Jordan Cruz resulted in the Rockets pulling level with the Lions with under four minutes left to play in the period. A flurry of shots by Stevenson, Cyr, and Harty in the final seconds of the period, resulted in Harty’s short-handed goal with nine seconds left on the clock. Morrisburg retook the lead 3-2.
The teams traded places in the third period. Theo Laforest scored back-to-back goals for North Dundas six and nine minutes in. Multiple penalty calls had the teams play four-on-four hockey during his first goal, and a four-on-three power-play for his second. Penalties aside, the Rockets surged ahead 4-3.
Three minutes later, Rozon tied the back-and-forth game for Morrisburg (from Lapier and Stevenson). The teams stayed logjammed 4-4 through the rest of the period, sending the game to 10 minutes of three-on-three overtime.
Two minutes in, Laforest sent home the game-winner for North Dundas, who won 5-4. Morrisburg left Chesterville with a point for the overtime loss, and three points for the weekend – their best weekend result so far this season.
The Lions have one game on the schedule for this coming weekend, as the team heads to Almonte to take on the third-place Inferno on November 23 – puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. Morrisburg’s next home game is November 30, when they host the South Grenville Rangers.