A rough ride in Newfoundland continued for our Lions

The Lions were hoping for a better outcome against the Newfoundland Growlers on Sunday afternoon after having lost the first two games of the teams’ three-games-in-three-days weekend series. But it quickly became apparent there’s a reason why the Growlers are the North Division champions. Newfoundland’s Pavel Gogolev netted the Growlers’ first goal of the game and in so doing tied the team’s goalscoring record. The Growlers’ Keenan Suthers made the score 2-0 with assists going to Nolan Walker and Derian Plouffe. Then it was Gogolev again with his second goal in the period and thereby establishing a Growler goalscoring record. Newfoundland’s Simon Kubicek was assessed a 5-minute major penalty at the 17:22 mark for a dangerous hit on the Lions’ Cole Gallant.The Growlers didn’t take their foot off the pedal in the second period. First it was Ryan Chyzowski making the score 4-0 and then four minutes later Michael Joyaux made it 5-0. The Lions’ James Phelan tried to ignite his teammates by going toe-to-toe with Growlers captain James Melindy, but that plan backfired and the Growlers continued their relentless attack, with Chyzowski ending the period just as he started it by making the score 6-0.The Lions finally got on the scoreboard in the third period when assistant captain Nicolas Guay scored after only 10 seconds of play. Then at 9:53, William Lemay gave the Lions a glimmer of hope by making the score 6-2 off a nice set up from Gallant. But the Growlers didn’t let those two goals bother them and they replied with three unanswered of their own: Melindy, Gogolev (completing his second hat trick in consecutive games) and Isaac Johnson making the final score 9-2. The victory means the Growlers officially clinched first place in the Eastern Conference to go along with being crowned champions of the North Division.