The Lac St. Louis Midget AAA Lions lost a pair over the weekend as they dropped a heartbreaking 3-2 game to Collège Antoine-Girouard Friday in overtime before losing 5-2 to Magog Saturday night at the Dollard Civic Centre.
First period
The Lions came roaring on the ice early on Saturday, establishing tempo rapidly. Offensive leader Anthony De Luca scored on a rapid rush to the net at 3:50. Lac St. Louis played a mean aggressive style without the puck challenging Magog on the fore check and in the defensive zone. It all seemed like the Lions would breeze through the first period easily until Jérémy Fontaine surprised goaltender Julien Larouche with a seemingly harmless shot from the right-side board. The shot went past Larouche five-hole and the game was tied at one.
Eight seconds later, Magog came back with another goal. Larouche was seemingly unprepared again when Danick Martel's shot went past him blocker-side. At that time, Magog had the lead 2-1 after only three shots on goal.
Martel was then called for tripping at 11:08. Anthony De Luca circulated the puck well on the power play and a few scoring chances were generated. The best chance came when defenseman Ryan Patulli shot on net from the point. Forward Max Côté batted the rebound out of the air but he struck the puck from too high and the goal was thus not allowed.
To make matters worse for the Lions, Justin Nantais scored on a rebound at 16:07. It was a third goal in six shots for Magog. The period ended with a score of 3-1 for Magog.
Second period
The Lions were able to kill off four penalties in the second period including a 1:27 five-on-three power play. The Lions were able to kill off those penalties in great part thanks to the brilliant play of forward Max Côté. The Cantonniers weren't able to capitalize on their cross-ice pass opportunities and the eight shots they did manage to put on goal during the period were well handled by Larouche.
Third period
As they had done in the first period, the Lions came out strong in the third period. They attacked Magog's zone with more conviction and this lead to Anthony De Luca's second goal of the game at 1:49. However, Lac St. Louis' indiscipline which hadn't cost them a goal yet in the game came back to haunt them when Robert Mackenzie was called for boarding at 8:26.
Good positioning lead to Danick Martel's powerplay goal a minute later as he took advantage of a puck bounce from behind the net to give his team a two-goal lead back at 9:37. Mickael Fillion sealed the fate of the Lions when he scored at 13:25 to put the score at 5-2 for Magog. The Lions' attacks were done with much less conviction afterwards and the game ended at 5-2 for Magog.
Magog's head coach Martin Bernard saw a lot of positive elements in his team victory against Lac St. Louis.
"We played a good game. We made small mistakes but in the end, I appreciated the intensity of our team. We focused on putting the puck at the net and it gave positive results," he said.
As for Lions' head coach Jon Goyens, he praised the Cantonniers for their opportunism and blamed the defeat on poor defensive play.
"They jumped on their opportunities. We made mistakes that cost us a lot. Even though they only had 25 shots on net, they had lots of scoring chances. We weren't strong enough on defence. Our defensemen must be better than that. We gave a few soft goals too. There was a lack of effort and attention to detail in the defensive zone, everybody wanted to someone else's job instead of his," he said.
