The Lac St. Louis midget AAA Lions started their playoff run smoothly last night (Wednesday) with a 5-2 win against Collège Notre-Dame (Rivière-du-Loup).
Defenseman Jeremy Davies scored in the first period assisted by Matthew Lourenço at 9:19 of the first period. Vincent Watt and Jordan Ty Fournier scored unanswered goals in the second period to give Lac St. Louis a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes. Brandon Kosik scored at 6:03 of the third period to put the Lions ahead by four goals.
Even though the Albatros came back with two goals later in the period, Lions' offensive leader Vimal Sukumaran nailed the coffin shut with an empty-netter with 1:37 remaining in regulation.
The Lions are playing game 2 of the best of 5 series tonight (Thursday) at the Dollard des Ormeaux Civic Centre at 7:30 p.m.
The series will then move to Stade de la Cité des Jeunes in Rivière-du-Loup Saturday afternoon. If necessary, game four will be played Sunday afternoon in Rivière-du-Loup as well and game five will be played in Dollard des Ormeaux on Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m if need be.
The Lions won home-ice advantage for this series thanks to their 47-point season which earned them the sixth seed in the league's rankings. The Collège Notre-Dame Albatros finished 11th with 43 points.
The two teams faced twice in the regular season. On Dec. 8 in Rivière-du-Loup, the Lions won 7-3 while on Jan. 19, the Albatros won 2-1 in a shootout. Last year, the Lions fell in the second round of the playoffs to Séminaire St. François.
