Pontiac Lions Atom C
This past weekend had the Pontiac Lions playing in a tournament in St. Isidore, Que. As the defending champions expectations were riding high. Game one had the Lions stacked up against . . .
the West Carleton Warriors from Carp, Ont.
Early in the first period Noah McCormick kept his hot stick rolling as he opened the scoring on a nifty goal set up by Jeffery Demers. Not long after things took a turn south as the Lions’ complacency cost them as the Warriors came alive and pumped three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead into the third period.
If not for the Lion’s goalie Robert Findlay’s big stops, the Warriors would have put this game away. However, with under four minutes to play, Demers fired one at the West Carleton net where Bentley Lalonde pounced on a juicy rebound to narrow the score to 3-2. Using this momentum the Lions roared back to life and with 30 seconds left, sniper Ashton Deschenes tied the game up 3-3 with a bullet to the top corner. This led to a three player shootout for all the marbles.
After the first two shootout attempts left the Warriors up by a goal, it was up to Easton Armstrong to keep the Lions’ hopes alive. He made no mistake as his wrist shot found its way into the West Carleton net. Not to be outdone, the Warriors’ last shooter put the game away with a huge pressure goal to take down the Lions in the overtime shootout. Player of the game for the Lions was goalie Robert Findlay.
Game two had the Lions matched up against the Cornwall Colts. The Lions must have gorged themselves at the buffet because they seemed to have been sleeping for the first two periods as the Colts let loose running away with a 3-0 lead. Early in the third period, Jeffery Demers brought the Lions back to life with a big goal to make the score 3-1. Minutes later Captain Walker Tremblay drove the net hard and hammered home a rebound from an Aston Deschen’s shot to narrow the score to 3-2. In the middle of the frame, a Colts forward hit Tremblay from behind and into the boards. As a result, Tremblay left the game and his season behind with a broken wrist. With two minutes to play, the Lions pulled their goaltender looking for the equalizer. After a valiant effort the Lions couldn’t tie the game and fell 3-2 to the Colts. Following up her strong play from game one, Lions forward Lorelei Smith was named the Pontiac Lions’ player of the game.
After an incredible team supper at a local restaurant the Lions came back to the rink with renewed vigor for game three. With the captain injured and leading scorer Demers sidelined with a temperature of 104 degrees, the Lions needed a regulation win against the North Grenville Selects (NGS) to move on to the semi-finals. The depleted Lions squad came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. After several scoring changes from Mason Vereyken, Mavrik Maxsom and Dryden Frobel were turned away it appeared as though Ashton Deschense had opened the scoring with a rocket launcher shot to the top corner. However, the referee waved it off determining the puck had hit the crossbar which kept the score at 0-0.
The Pontiac Lions outworked and out shot the Grenville team but the Selects goalie had a horseshoe hidden in his pads as the game finished tied 0-0.
Once again, for the second time in three games, the Pontiac Lions were headed for a shootout. Coach Danny Lalonde must have had a hunch as he sent out McCormick, Lalonde and Chloe Gilbert to shoot in overtime. With Findlay stopping the first two Grenville shooters and McCormick and Lalonde firing bullets in to Select’s net, the Pontiac Lions came out victorious! Defenceman Easton Armstrong was named player of the game.
Even though they missed semi-finals by a point there were still plenty of smiles around the pool that night in Hawkesbury. It has been said that you will forget your wins and losses but you will never forget your teammates.
Great job Lions!Submitted by Lalonde’s Towing
