Game 5: Do-or-die tonight

The Lions know what they have to do this evening: Win and force a Game 6. Lose… and the season is over.After Thursday night’s disappointing 5-2 loss to the Newfoundland Growlers at Colisée Vidéotron, the Lions now face a three-games-to-one deficit in the North Division semi-final.Which means that tonight’s game – to borrow an often-used cliché – is the most important game of the year. It’s sudden death for the Lions. And it will require each and every player to give it his all.Head coach Éric Bélanger knows that having to now win three consecutive games is a tall order, especially with games six and seven (if necessary) to be played in St. John’s. But he had to be pleased with his team’s never-say-die attitude Thursday, with Hayden Shaw scoring with 34 seconds left in the game.The Lions will be hoping that playing at home in front of a boisterous Colisée Vidéotron crowd will be the recipe for a Game 5 win.

Puck drop tonight is 7:00 p.m.The schedule for the remaining games of the best-of-seven series is as follows:Game 5 – Saturday, April 30 at Trois-Rivières (7:00 p.m.)Game 6 (if necessary) – Monday, May 2 at Newfoundland (5:30 p.m.)Game 7 (if necessary) – Tuesday, May 3 at Newfoundland (5:30 p.m.)Players to watch:Lions’ goaltender Philippe Desrosiers has played all four playoff games. He’s posted a 4.60 goals against average, an .865 save percentage and has faced 133 shots.Ben Finkelstein leads Newfoundland’s defence corps with five points (0-5-5). He also is a +4.