Greyhounds Seek Season Sweep of Lions

The Greyhounds had won the first two meetings with the Lions and were looking for the series sweep on Wednesday night.  The only had 2 lines but that hadn’t stopped them before.  

Mat McLeod opened the scoring with a controversial goal on the Greyhounds first shot on goal.  The Lions had the puck in the dogs zone the whole first 2.5 minutes and then the Greyhounds escaped.  Drew LeFrank threw a puck on goal where McLeod was driving.  The shot/pass went off his skate and in, either a redirection or a kick depending on the team you support.  The referee near the play called it off, but the back official overturned the call and the Greyhounds were up 1-0. 

Taylor McKay made an end to end rush and his shot beat Logan MacLean from distance to tie the game at 1.  But leave it to Greg Delano to create space for himself when given time with the puck.  He weaved into the Lions zone and took a cross body shot that fooled Trevor Pate and went into the top of the net to restore the Greyhounds lead.

The Lions continued to have more zone time as they cycled the puck around without being able to beat Logan.  Then Joey Richard, sitting on exactly zero goals on the season, unleashed a bomb from the point.  The puck zipped by everyone and off the far post and in.  The Lions have been finding goals all over the place and this was the second from the point in the game.

Just 90 seconds later, as Joey had stepped onto the ice and into the play, he got the puck at the point again and sent a low wrister on goal.  Jamie Richard got a stick on it and the puck found a puck sized hole beside Logan as it slid into the back of the net.

It was a close game and we would watch the goaltenders on their game for the first half of the second period as the Lions clung to a one goal lead.  Then, with Lions captain Dustin Hall in the box, the Greyhounds struck.  Greg Delano took a shot and dove into the net to try to put in his rebound.  Drew LeFrank got the puck that was dislodged from Trevor Pate’s glove and shot it in, hitting Delano who was atop Pate at this point, but the puck was across the line before hitting Delano, so it was LeFrank’s goal, his 6th of the season.

The Lions had plenty of chances to get the lead back, including a golden chance for Jamie Richard that ended up hitting Hall who was trying to provide a screen in front, and then with a minute left, Jamie fed Matt Gendron on the top of the crease, cutting across the goal mouth,  Gendron got his stick on the puck but couldn’t redirect it in.

Shootout time.  The Greyhounds elected to go second.  When asked if he was ready to shoot first, Connor Tousignant told his captain “I’ll go, but I’m shooting it between my legs”.  He of course got the go ahead, and he stepped up, skating wide he came across the net as slow as humanly possible.  He put the puck between his legs and it sat in a little snow bank.  He then shot the puck and the snow and beat Logan blocker side to put the Lions up 1-0.  The Greyhounds sent Connor LeBlanc.  LeBlanc came with speed and deked to his backhand.  The puck found the tiniest of spaces above Pate’s pad and under his glove as it went to the back of the net. 1-1.

Keith Webb was up for the Lions.  He came down and shot blocker side.  Logan made the save and the puck went up into the air.  It dropped down off the top of the post and landed on the net. 1-1 still.  Greg Delano’s turn.  He went left then did a small backhand fake, went to the forehand, and Pate made the blocker save to shut him down. 1-1.

Jamie Richard for the Lions came in and fired low blocker side to make it 2-1 Lions.  It was down to Mat McLeod, but without being able to kick it in, would he be able to score?  He elected to go for the glove side shot, but Trevor Pate shut him down, the Lions took the win in the shootout as they remain undefeated in the skills competition this season.  The Greyhounds inched closer to the Eurekas but will need to win out if they want to move up in the standings.  The Lions stayed in 4th, 4 points back of the Norsemen.