Sweet revenge in South Carolina

On Saturday night the Lions faced the Stingrays in South Carolina for the second time in what will be three consecutive days. The Lions are in the thick of the playoff chase and head coach Éric Bélanger’s squad was looking for revenge after losing the first game in the series on Friday night.South Carolina’s Alex Brink opened the scoring with a pinpoint shot on a two-on-one break. But the Lions’ never say die approach led to an equalizing goal three minutes later with Max Kaufman benefitting from a perfect pass from Anthony Nellis. It was Kaufman’s first goal as a Lion. A few minutes later new recruit Alexandre Fortin profited from a two-man power play advantage to beat Stingrays’ goaltender Ryan Bednard with a rocket of a shot. At the end of 20 minutes of play the Lions held a 2-1 lead. The Lions did everything they could in the second period to extend their lead, but Bednard was unbeatable. He made several impressive stops, including a highlight reel save off of Lions forward William Leblanc. With less than two minutes remaining in the period, South Carolina’s Justin Florek evened the score at 2-2 with an impressive shot that went between the legs of Lions’ netminder Arturs Silovs.It didn’t take the Lions long to regain the lead in the third period when Fortin scored his second of the game. Just over a minute later the Lions’ Julien Nantel celebrated his return to action by converting a perfect set-up from Olivier Archambault and Brenden Locke to double Trois-Rivières’ lead. Late in the third period Brenden Locke scored to give the Lions a three-goal advantage. Final score: Lions-5, Stingrays-2.The Lions’ next game is Sunday afternoon when the team will play the Stingrays for the last time this season. Puck drop is at 3:05 p.m.