Jr. C Lions tie Royals, lose to Volant

nnMORRISBURG – Five games into the season, the Morrisburg Lions earned their first point this year over the weekend. The point was one out of a potential four the team could have picked up as the Lions faced two of the top teams in the NCJHL.nnMorrisburg first played the first place Bytown Royals on October 11th in Ottawa.nnThe Royals opened the scoring late in the first period off an unassisted goal by Jonathan Cauchon.nn

nnBytown led Morrisburg 1-0 until the middle of the third period. With 10:18 remaining in the game, Justin Shay scored the tying short-handed goal (unassisted), sending the game into overtime.nnFollowing five minutes of four-on-four hockey, the teams settled on a 1-1 tie for the night.nnLions goalie Riley Phillips faced 59 shots in the game, while his teammates peppered the Royals’ goalie with 29 shots. Morrisburg was zero-for-nine on the power play, and 10-for-10 on the penalty killnnLeaving Ottawa with their first point, a third period crash the following night at home to the Gatineau-Hull Volant kept the team in the league basement.nnThe game was scoreless until the halfway mark of the first period when Jérémy Cardinal (from Pascal Vachon) found his way past Phillips in net. Volant led 1-0.nnJustice Brownlee (from Braden Kehoe and Tyler Rae) tied the game for the Lions just 52 seconds later.nnThroughout the second period, the Volant managed to get under the Lions’ skin on the ice, getting Morrisburg caught up in a number of penalties. This gave the Volant eight power play opportunities, netting the team two goals against the Lions (Jérémy Trudeau, Dave Fréchette). In all, the Lions picked up 24 penalty minutes in the period including a hooking call which gave Gatineau-Hull a penalty shot in the final minute of the second period, which Phillips easily saved. After the whistle blew for the period, Vachon was turfed by officials after a flying tackle of a Lions’ defenceman in their end. Despite the rough game, the Gatineau-Hull team led Morrisburg 3-1.nnMorrisburg began the third period on a penalty kill, and continued to send players to the “Sin Bin” for much of the game.nnThe Lions really got into trouble five minutes into the period when Lions’ forward Tyson Sherrer was tossed for his second altercation of the night giving the Volant a five minute power play. Seconds later, the Lions were down a second player as defenceman Kayne McCadden was also tossed by the officials. In less than three minutes, the Volant picked off four goals (Olivier Dubois, Cédric Bertrand, Matthias Roy, and Bertrand) to take a commanding 7-1 lead. Lions’ coach Ken Turnbull switched out goalies, placing Justin LeClair between the pipes for the balance of the game.nnKevin Doyle answered back for Morrisburg with 2:28 remaining in the game (from Brownlee and Jake Amo), but the effort was too-little, too-late. Lions fell to the Volant 7-2.nnThe Lions head north to Metcalfe October 18th to take on the Jets, then host the Clarence Castors at the Morrisburg Arena October 19th.nn