Sports

 

The Ontario Power Generation made most appreciated donations of $500 to the Morrisburg and District Figure Skating Club and the South Dundas Minor Hockey Association on Monday evening. According to Skate Club president Julie Van Hoof, the annual OPG donation is always a big help and this year it will be put towards some new equipment and the construction of new viewing stands for competition judges. Minor hockey president, Jeff Van Moorsel also expressed his association’s gratitude and said the money is used to provide registration assistance to some of its players. The OPG presentation was done by Dale Adams of Morrisburg who is the Maintenance Manager at the Saunders Generating Station. Adams explained that OPG likes to give back to the community and in this case, “it is going to our youth athletes.” Pictured, l-r, are Ellen Biemond and Julie VanHoof representing the figure skating club, Adams, and Jeff Van Moorsel.

[…]

 

We’re into the third week of curling at the Morrisburg Curling Club and things are rounding into shape. 

The Swing and Sweep event had to be cancelled this year, as a result of low numbers interested. Instead, the executive organized an opening bonspiel for last Saturday. 

Other events scheduled are Glenn Cougler’s stick bonspiel, the women’s Invitational on Tuesday, December 4, the Gamble bonspiel on Saturday November 17, and the OCA Zone 1 Intermediates from December 22-23. 

In addition, a lady from Cornwall is trying to organize an Alzheimer’s bonspiel for Saturday, November 10. Club president, Mahlon Locke tells us there’ll be an information sheet in the lounge. Why not put together a team to support this charity? More information on all events is available at the Club or from the organizers.

Over the summer a good deal of work was done by the executive and other volunteers. The new carpet is in, painting (especially interesting is the red door) and upgrading inside has taken place, -washrooms, bar, etc., and feet-cleaning mats are down at entrances to the ice surface. 

The ice is fast, and Wally Baker has some other innovations that have much improved the surface and our curling experience. On November 10 our rocks’ running bands will be reconditioned, to bring back the wonderful curling ability they used to have, well back in the last century. 

Our membership numbers are down slightly from last year, but there are a number of new curlers, and it is still possible to register for the league of your choice. Those interested can also curl as a spare, or pay for single games if there is an opening on a team. 

Dave King is looking after the day men for anyone who would like to join that league. Tuesday night men’s coordinator Joe McCooeye is the person to see about signing up there, Alice Thompson for the Tuesday afternoon ladies, Susan McIntosh and Claire Locke for Wednesday night ladies, Ruth Kelly for daytime mixed, Ian Wilson for the Thursday night competitive league, and Mahlon Locke for the Friday night mixed league. 

Also, the little rockers are being looked after by Ian and Kathy Wilson. Hope to see some more people out!

Mahlon and Paula Locke and their committee organized the opening bonspiel, and arranged a delicious lunch for the curlers in the event. In the early draw, there was some mid-season level curling, with Sid Morrell’s foursome emerging victorious. His team included Ron Beaupre, Ted Herriman and Paul Gunther. 

In the second draw Mahlon Locke, Wendy Casselman, Dave McIntosh and Claire Locke were victorious. When the total points for the teams were considered, Sid’s foursome finished first, with Mahlon’s warriors ending up second overall. It was a good day, with profits from the event turned over to the club. 

A women’s team competed at Kemptville last Saturday. Gretta McGann, Cheryl Thompson, and Paula and Claire Locke played a single eight-end match in the morning, and defeated a foursome from Brockville. When the winners’ scores were tallied, Morrisburg was in second place, while Smiths Falls took the overall total.

Local teams are entered in several bonspiels around eastern Ontario, and we’ll report on those when they occur.  There will be friendly competitions with other club teams from various leagues, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed about those. Do keep us posted on your events, so that we can report to your fans.

Good curling, folks! 

[…]

 

Approximately 50 members attended the annual fall meeting of the Morrisburg Golf Club on Sunday afternoon with much of the discussion this year centering around the summer-long problems with several of the greens.

With three greens severely damaged by blue algae, and several others showing slight damage, it was a long tough season for both the club’s board of directors and the greens staff, as they did their best to work on the problem and provide the members and paying guests the best playing conditions as was possible.

With the season now behind them, and the course officially closed to all play as of this past Monday, October 29, the board members laid out the plans for next spring’s work on the troubled one, two and three greens.

According to treasurer Sean Boulerice, greens two and three are to be sodded in the spring, while the first green which has been showing signs of recovery since it was seeded in September, will continue to be worked on.

Greens chair Shawn Hummel, along with Boulerice and club president Jason Broad, have solicited much appreciated help from several area greens professionals and it is following their advice that the club will proceed next spring.

“We started off pretty tough,” said Hummel in his report. “There was a lot of maintenance required on the equipment and we were looking at a lot of water damage on the fairways. We decided to go ahead and fix the fairway drainage problems (where required).”

Questioned as to how long the second and third greens, could be expected to be out of play after sodding next spring, Boulerice said they were hoping that it would be six weeks max, after the sodding. 

Boulerice said the sodding can be done as soon as the ground reaches a temperature of 50 degrees and that will be dependent on the weather. “So we are hoping to get an early spring and to get at it in April,” he said.

With declining membership, which is being felt throughout the golf industry, and the fear of losing more members due to the problems with the greens, at the advice of the executive, the Morrisburg Golf Club members voted a fairly hefty drop in membership fees for the 2013 season.

“We feel that by lowering our prices, we would be very price competitive,” said Boulerice explaining the board has looked at other clubs’ pricing and what they have been doing to attract members and green fee players. 

The drop sees the fee for single member golfers drop from last year’s $540 to $450 (before applicable taxes and a club levy that is being collected to help pay for the beautiful deck added to the clubhouse two years ago).

All membership categories were adjusted to correspond to the base rate change and come spring reduced green fees will be put into effect.

The club will also have membership gift certificates available immediately for people to purchase as Christmas gifts.

The meeting ended with the annual election of officers for the 2013 season which saw the majority of board members returned.

The main changes in the board are in the club captain positions as Monique Patenaude takes over for Lori-Anne Davies who finished out two terms, and Andy Patenaude replaces Bob Mann who handled the men’s duties in 2012.

Jason Broad was returned as president, Mick Mabo as 1st vice-president and Barry Henderson as second vice-president. Sean Boulerice remained as treasurer, Candace Jamieson as secretary and Shawn Hummel as greens chair. A seniors rep had yet to be found to replace Lawrence Larocque who has stepped down.

[…]

 

The Morrisburg Junior B Lions dug themselves a little deeper into the St. Lawrence Division basement, when they lost to the Alexandria Glens 11-2 in front of their hometown fans on Sunday afternoon. It was the Lions eighth consecutive loss and it leaves them in the division’s sixth place position, three points behind the Akwesasne Wolves.

The wins give the Glens sole possession of third place with 10 points.

The first period of Sunday’s game got off to a slow start, but just over nine minutes in Jarren Burke beat Lions goaltender Ryan Cooper to get the Glens rolling.

By the end of the second period, they were up 4-0.

Chris Rutley put the Lions on the scoreboard less than a minute into the second period with help from Michel Lefebvre but that was it for the Lions until well into the third period.

The Glens stormed back for two more in the second for a commanding 6-1 lead.

At 5:06 of the third period, Lefebvre scored short-handed with help from Chris Rutley and that was it for the Lions scoring as the Glens pumped home another five to claim the 11-2 win.

Ryan Cooper handled the Lions loss and was relieved in net for the final 7:15 of the game by Joey Lamarch. Lions goaltender Mikael Dion was serving his first of a three game suspension assessed in last week’s game against the Winchester Hawks. Antoine Marchand handled the net duties for the Glens.

The first period saw just two minor penalties assessed, both to the Glens. The Lions sat out two minors and a misconduct for checking to the head in the second, while the Glens were assessed one minor. The Lions handled the six minor penalties assessed in the third period and the Glens took advantage for two power-play goals.

Jonathan Cyr and TJ Burns led the Glens scoring with three goals apiece and Luca Ciale, Bradley Gabbour, Jarren Burke, Erik Just and Leo MacLean all had singles. The Glens out shot the Lions 45-35.

This week the Lions announced a change to their bench as Andrew Scott joins Dan Frawley’s coaching staff.

“On behalf of the Lions management, I would like to thank Herbie Seguin for his commitment to our organization, and wish Herbie all the best in his future coaching endeavours,” said Lions manager Kevin Casselman.

Scott is an experienced junior coach having served two seasons as assistant coach with the South Grenville Rangers. From the Rangers, he moved up to Junior A as an assistant coach with the Kemptville Jr. “A” 73s before returning for two seasons at the Junior B level as the coach of the Metcalfe Jets.

“Andrew brings experience to us in the recruitment process and is a welcome addition to our staff,” said Casselman.

The Lions have a busy week coming up as they travel to Casselman this Thursday, night November 1 to take on the Vikings at 7:30 p.m.

They have two scheduled home games this weekend, the first when the Brockville Tikis come to town for an 8:30 p.m. match this Friday night, November 2. On Sunday, (November 4), starting at 2:30 p.m. they will host the Casselman Vikings.

[…]

 

Over the last few years the weather has not been kind to local snowmobilers, but that was not the case on Saturday.

Sunshine and mild temperatures made for a great day for the Riverside Heights Snowmobile Club’s third annual snowmobile show and swap meet.

“We really lucked out with the weather,” said Dave Shaver, club president. “Overnight thunderstorms had us worried, as the success of events like this one are so dependant on the weather, but it ended up being a perfect day.”

Area snowmobile dealers, including Jim’s Performance of Iroquois, Crossings of Prescott and Irwin’s of Cornwall, had displays on site featuring the latest models. “They all had terrific displays,” said Shaver, who was pleased to have such strong support from them.

The vintage and racing sleds made for an impressive display. 

Thirty-nine vintage snowmobiles were on display brought from collectors both locally and from a little farther afield including Brockville, Lanark, Kemptville, North Gower, Toledo and even Shawville, Quebec.

“There were a lot of really rare machines,” said Shaver. “I thought I had seen a lot of different vintage sleds, but there was one there that I had never seen before,”  he said referring to the 1972 Snoblazer.

Twelve trophies were handed out to those judged as the various class winners.

“The organizing committee for the event worked really hard and did a great job,” said Shaver.

“We were able to expand our list of contacts for the future, so we should be able to make it even bigger next year.”

[…]

 

The Morrisburg Junior B Lions continued their downward skid in St. Lawrence Division Junior Hockey action this past weekend with another three losses which brings their losing streak to seven games. Their last win was on home ice on September 30, when they dropped the Alexandria Glens, 6-0.

This past week, the Lions kicked it off Wednesday night in Brockville with a 6-4 loss to the Tikis. Then on Friday night, on home ice, they lost 5-1 to the Athens Aeros and that was followed by an 8-7 loss to the Winchester Hawks in Morrisburg, on Sunday afternoon.

“We have had hard luck scoring goals,” says Lions team manager Kevin Casselman. “The chances have been there, we have just not been finishing our offensive chances.”

Casselman also explained that the Lions have been running with a short bench due to mid term university exams. This happens every year at this time and this year affects three Lions players.

With basically the same schedule in place from one year to the next, it would appear time the Lions asked to have the schedule examined.

The team annually runs into this three game week (with the midweek game in Brockville) when players are unable to play due to their exams.

Although the Lions have lost their last seven games, Casselman says management does not feel it is due to lack of effort. “Some short lapses with attention to detail have resulted in scoring opportunities for our opposition,” he explains. “For the most part these lapses are not from the efforts being given. We must also consider that we are still a young club, and we will continue to work on all aspects in practice.”

“Yesterday’s game was an offensive game for sure,” he says of the 8-7 loss to the Winchester Hawks on Sunday. “It was one of those games where you wanted to have last possession.”

The Hawks took a 3-1 first period lead in the game, but the Lions battled back to win the second period 3-2 .

By 15:33 of the second they had the game tied 4-4 but the Hawks got one more back to carry a 5-4 advantage into the third.

The two played even in the third, each potting three goals, which gave the Hawks the 8-7 win.

Michele Lefebvre had a big three goal effort for the Lions, while Chris Rutley, Sylvester Bzdyl, Curtis Pilon and Grant Cooper added singles.

Mathew White struck three times for the Hawks, Kevin Vinyard scored a pair and singles were added by Kyle Richardson, Brandon Belding and Jamie Olivier.

Mikael Dion was in net for the Lions for 56:34. With just over three minutes left in the game an altercation between Dion and the Hawks, Brandon Belding resulted  in five minute fighting majors and match penalties to both. The two will serve three game suspensions.

According to Casselman, “Mikael took offence to what he felt was interference through his crease. Earlier in the game the altercation between Dillon Lapier, was also a result of this.”

On a positive note, Casselman pointed out that when the Lions got down Sunday, “the players did not quit. They bought back for each other and only good things can come from the effort given.”

A solid first period effort in Brockville on Wednesday night, resulted in a 2-0 Lions lead. However the Tikis recovered in the second and came back for four consecutive goals as they headed for the 6-4 win.

Sylvester Bzdyl had two goals for the Lions, while Zach Sequin and Michel Lefebvre added singles.

The Tikis were assessed 10 minor penalties and two 10 minute misconducts while the Lions sat out nine minors and one misconduct. The Tikis Cody Waite scored the lone power-play goal of the game against Lions goaltender Mikael Dion early in the second period.

The Lions were flat in Friday night’s game in Morrisburg against the visiting Athens Aeros. The Aeros put together two unanswered goals against Dion in the first period and another three in the second on their way to the 5-1 win.

Michel Lefebvre scored from Dylan Casselman and Chaffee on the Lions power play to spoil Dallas Slack’s shutout midway into the third period.

Each of the teams sat out three minor penalties and a pair of checking to the head misconducts.

Joining the Lions lineup is Dylan Dejong, a graduate of the local South Dundas Minor Hockey system.

Also seeing ice time are affiliated players–Peter Ketcheson of Greely who plays for Eastern Ontario Wild “AAA” Major Midgets; Brian Landry from the Cornwall Major Midget Colts and Isaac Brownlee from the South Stormont Major Midgets. 

Coming up this weekend, the Lions have just one game on Sunday afternoon when the Alexandria Glens come to town for a 2:30 p.m. start.

[…]

 

Sunday, the South Dundas Novice B Lions hosted the Kemptville #1 Panthers in a rematch of the 3-3 season opener.  This time they were looking to break into the win column for the first time this season, but came up short with a 2-1 loss.  

The Lions opened the game with some aggressive forechecking and strong skating to take the play to the Panthers.  

Spencer Barclay, Quade Mullin and Dryden Buter had the Panthers pinned in their end for the entire first shift and Sean Nicolaassen, Montgomery Dejong and Owen Paterson continued the theme on the next shift.  

At the end of the first period, the Lions had a large advantage in time of possession and puck in the attacking zone, but unfortunately could not get one by the Panthers goalie.  

They started out the second period with more of the same and their hard work was rewarded when Dejong redirected a shot from Nicolaassen, for a 1-0 lead.  

Midway through the second period, the momentum changed as Kemptville started to out-hustle the Lions.  

Despite some great defensive work by Jackson McCann, Sam Connors, Cameron Shaver, Stefan Kronstal and  Nathan Paulino, the Panthers were able to get two goals to take the lead.  

Goalie Brayden Lalonde-Thompson had a strong game as Kemptville increased their offensive chances through the third period.  The Lions pulled their goalie for the extra attacker with one minute left in the game and pressed for the tying goal, but the Panthers prevailed for the 2-1 victory.  

Spencer Barclay took the Big Stick honours for player of the game with his best skating game this year.  

This Wednesday the Lions are in Kemptville against Kemptville #2. Sunday at 1 p.m. they are at home to North Dundas.

[…]

 

The South Dundas “Pioneer Gas” Atom B Rep Lions completed a five game weekend with two wins and three losses. 

Following league games Friday night in Long Sault and Saturday night in Morrisburg, the Lions travelled to Cobden on Sunday to play in the Muskrat Atom Tournament. 

With the multiple game weekend the Lions were pushed to the limit and came up a little short in the finals.

In the Tournament “B” Final the Lions matched up against the Valley Storm in a rematch of one of their round robin games in which they lost 6-0. 

The Lions started strong when Emytt Fetterly picked up a puck from behind his own net and passed it to Nolan Henry who quickly moved it out of the end zone and over to Ben Lapier who broke in on the Storm goalie and backhanded a shot home for the 1-0 Lions lead. 

The Storm picked up the pace and took over the game, but Brendan Shaver was strong in the Lions net as he turned away shot after shot to hold the Lions 1-0 lead.

In the second period, the Storm scored on back-to-back plays, 21 seconds apart, to take the lead 2-1. 

The Storm continued to get scoring chances against Lions game Brendan Shaver who was named the Lions MVP in the 5-1 B final loss. 

In their round robin game earlier in the day, the Lions were flat in a 6-0 loss where Ban Lapier was named their game MVP.

In their opening game the Lions faced off against the Clarence-Rockland Castors and had their best offensive game of the year in the 8-3 win. Nolan Henry who led the way with three goals and two assists was named the game MVP.

Scoring the other goals were Ben Lapier with two, Duncan Hutt, Owen Fetterly and Joshua Broad.

In the skills competition, the Lions were represent by Ben Lapier in the Fastest Skater event, second place in his heat. Kieran Geurkink, Brody Fairbairn and Dana Domanko skated in the team event, again finishing second in their heat and then Jack Connors, Jaeden Phifer-Shaver and goaltender Brendan Shaver faced off in the shoot out event. Shaver allowed only one goal and was eliminated, as well as Phifer-Shaver with his two goals. Connors scored three times before advancing to the finals where he won the event in a lengthy final round.

In league action the Lions split the two games losing in Long Sault, 5-3 and defeating Cornwall, 3-1. 

In the Cornwall game, the Lions were down 1-0 early but battled back with two first period goals. 

Lapier opened the scoring after Broad battled for a puck off an offensive draw and got it over to Lapier who shot quickly to beat the Colts goaltender. 

Jack Connors scored shortly on a break away when Owen Fetterly fed Connors the puck as he went in alone and out-skated the Colts defenders.

The Lions played well defensively through the second period as Dana Domanko and Kieran Guerkink continued to win one on one battles with Colts forwards and Shaver was solid in the Lions net. The Lions iced the game in the third when Domanko centred a pass to Lapier who started a two on one with Broad. Lapier skated into the Colts end and centred a pass to Broad who buried his shot on the ice through the five hole for the goal and the 3-1 win.

Friday night, the Lions gave up a 3-2 third period lead for a 5-3 loss to the Selects. 

Lapier scored the lone first period Lions goal with Brody Fairbairn providing the assist. The Selects battled back in the second and took a 2-1 lead, but Broad and Lapier teamed up for a short handed goal to keep it even.

Later in the period on the power play Nolan Henry tipped the puck off a face-off to Jack Connors who wristed a shot off a defender’s stick into the back of the net.

The Selects scored three unanswered third period goals for their 5-3 win.

The South Dundas “Pioneer Gas” Atom B Rep Lions face the Alexandria Glens here on Saturday night at 7 p.m. 

 

[…]

 

Led by an outstanding offensive  performance from Cassandra Young, the Dundas Bantam House Lions defeated the Russell Coyotes, 4-2, in Ontario Women’s Hockey Association action here Saturday.

Young struck for all four of the  Lions counters. She counted three times in the first period and adding a single in the second, before the Coyotes were able to get on the scoreboard.

Adding their help on Young’s goals were Emma Barkley and Emily Byers on the first, Ally Weegar on the second and Sierra Swindells on the third.

Young counted her fourth goal unassisted.

Lions goaltender Taylor Van Allen gave up the two Coyote goals to Emily Laniel and Riley Beehler.

[…]

 

The Dundas Midget House Lions put up, not one, but two big wins in Ontario Women’s Hockey Association play this past weekend.

The Lions kicked it off on the road Friday night, with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Outaouais, and then back home on Morrisburg ice on Sunday, they blanked the visiting Smiths Falls Bears 1-0.

Jessica Rutley led the Friday night effort scoring the two goals for the Lions in their 2-1 victory.

The first came late in the second period with help from Jodie Hall and Mackenzie Barkley.

Jessica Coti beat Lions’ goaltender Carman Stubbings with 5:30 remaining in the third period to tie the game 1-1.

That set the stage for the winner from Rutley, assisted by Amber Saddlemire.

Sunday in Morrisburg, Amber Moke, assisted by Melissa Stevens, put the Dundas Lions on the scoreboard late in the first period and that was it.

Goaltender Carman Stubbings was unbeatable throughout the remainder of the game, and the Lions held on for a 1-0 shutout win.

In their regular season, the Lions have played four games, won two, lost one and settled for one tie.

[…]