MORRISBURG – Play off hockey returns to Morrisburg as the Lions defeated the South Grenville Rangers February 8 to lock in their playoff spot.
The Lions needed to win their final game of the 2024-25 regular season to move back into seventh place. A win by the Cumberland Castors the night before bumped the Lions down to the least-desired playoff spot – eighth place. Before the weekend, Cumberland and Morrisburg were tied in points, but the Lions had one more win.
Morrisburg started Saturday’s game on the back foot as South Grenville took a 1-0 lead eight minutes in. The Lions tied the game five minutes later when Jordan Elliott (from Hudson Fetterly and Ben Lapier) scored the equalizing goal igniting the home crowd. Kayne McCadden (from Josh Broad) scored the go-ahead goal in the final two minutes of the first period to put the Lions ahead 2-1.
Morrisburg and South Grenville exchanged a goal each in the second period. Aronhiawaks Rice’s goal (from Monty DeJong and Owen McMillan) was countered by former Lion forward Ben Pilon. The Lions led 3-2 heading into the third period.
A power-play goal by Lapier (Bennett Harty, Ashton Adams) doubled the Lions’ lead 4-2. Lapier added another goal with less than seven minutes remaining, assisted by Adams and Broad. Goals from Justin Cyr and Adams rounded out Morrisburg’s offence as the Lions won 7-2.
After earning the vital two points needed, the Lions finish the regular season in third place in the league’s West Division, and seventh overall with a record of 12 wins, 21 losses, and one overtime loss for 25 points.
The Lions are back into the fire this Friday night as they begin the first round of the playoffs, where they take on the West Division champions, the Westport Rideaus (24-9-0-1). The Rideaus had the third lowest goals against in the season (95) and third best goals for (133) this year and enter the playoffs on a seven-game winning streak.
Morrisburg will travel to Westport February 14 to open the best-of-seven-game series. Game Two of the series is in Morrisburg February 15, puck drop at 7:30 p.m.
Correction: In the February 12, 2025 print edition, The Leader reported the playoff series is a best-of-five game series. In fact, it is a best-of-seven game series. The Leader apologizes for the error. This is the first correction of a story in 2025.