MORRISBURG – Locked in a tight playoff qualification battle in the bottom half of the league – and with only five games remaining in the season – the Morrisburg Jr. Lions needed to string together some wins. Not only did the team win back-to-back games, they made it a three game winning streak. Morrisburg defeated the Almonte Inferno Friday and Sunday, and the South Grenville Rangers on Saturday.
Morrisburg’s toughest battle was Friday night (January 17) as they hosted Almonte. Josh Broad opened the scoring six minutes into the game, set up by Justin Cyr, for the Lions. The Inferno countered, tying the game 1-1 going into the second period.
It was a goal scoring frenzy in the second period, and despite many penalties against both teams, only two power-play goals were scored. Cyr (Eystn Wylie, and Lukas Rozon), Bennett Harty (Hudson MacDonald, and Ben Lapier), Aronhiawaks Rice (Jordan Elliott, and Callum Stevenson), and Rozon (Harty, Lapier) scored for Morrisburg, while Almonte scored only three goals. The Lions led 5-4 after 40 minutes. Rozon added a pair of insurance goals in the third, one on a power-play, the second an empty-netter, as Morrisburg won 7-4.
Buoyed by the win Friday, the team travelled to Prescott to take on the last place Rangers. After a scoreless first period, Rozon (Cyr, Lapier) scored a power-play goal two minutes into the second period. Morrisburg carried a 1-0 lead into the third period.
South Grenville scored a power-play goal to tie the game early in the third. That tie game lasted all of six minutes before Cyr (Elliott, Lapier) scored on a Lions’ power-play to restore the one goal lead. Elliott (Rozon, Lapier) and Kahotiio Lazore (Elliott, Lapier) added two more power-play goals late in the period. A breakaway unassisted goal from Broad sealed the Lions’ 5-1 win. Four points down, two more to go.
Morrisburg hosted Almonte again Sunday (January 17) for their final meet up of the season.
The Lions and Inferno were tied 1-1 at the end of the first period. Hudson MacDonald (from Ashton Adams, and Shamus McDonald) opened the scoring for the Lions 12 minutes in, but that was countered four minutes later.
Harty (Lapier, Rozon) and James Martens (Monty DeJong, McDonald) scored in the second period to put the Lions ahead 3-1.
Morrisburg added four goals in the third period with Broad, Cyr, and Adams (two goals) scoring. All but Broad’s goal were on Morrisburg power-plays. Almonte managed to score a consolation shorthanded goal with 37 seconds left in the game. Too little, too late, as the Lions won 7-2.
The winning weekend for Morrisburg leapfrogged the team over the Cumberland Castors for seventh place in the league standings. The Lions’ 11-20-1 record (23 points) has the team two points behind the Metcalfe Jets, and two points ahead of the Castors. With two games left on the schedule, the team’s playoff fate is largely out of their hands now.
A seventh place finish in the regular season would place the team against West Division leaders, the Westport Rideaus in the first round of the playoffs. However, the three teams below Morrisburg in the standings have five-to-six games remaining to play and are within reach of the Lions’ point total.
Morrisburg hosts the North Dundas Rockets January 25. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. After a two week break, the Lions finish the regular season Feb. 8.
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