A home win before hitting the road for two weeks!

The Lions and Maine Mariners faced-off for a fifth time Saturday afternoon at Colisée Vidéotron. Friday night’s first game of the two-game series was a heated and testy affair, so all eyes were focused on how the teams would perform on this matinée engagement. Lions fans were hoping the team would show more discipline than what was on display Friday evening. Starting in nets for the Lions was Zachary Émond, who has a two-way contract with the AHL’s Laval Rocket. Émond was playing his first game at home.

The first period revealed that the teams had lost none of the animosity towards one another that was in evidence Friday night, but this time around the Lions were more often than not able to keep their cool. With two players being promoted to the Rocket earlier in the day, the Lions had to ratchet-up their game, and it paid off when they scored the afternoon’s first goal: Jakov Novak – who had received a game misconduct Friday night – opened the scoring with assists going to Miguel Tourigny and Anthony Beauregard. The Mariners, however, led in the shots on goal department, recording 10 as compared to the Lions’ seven.

Lack of discipline reared its ugly head in the second period when the Mariners were assessed five penalties while the Lions garnered four. The Lions’ Christopher Ortiz extended the Lions' lead to 2-0 at the 11:02 mark with assists to Novak (who ended the afternoon with one goal and one assist) and Tourigny (two assists in the game). The Lions also did not fall into the Mariners’ trap of inducing them to commit penalties, which was not the case on Friday. The Lions regained the lead in shots on goal with 22 shots versus 20 for the Mariners after 40 minutes of play.

The ill-feelings between the teams was very much in evidence in the third period, with no fewer than four misconduct penalties called on Tim Doherty, Cedric Montminy, Nicolas Larivière and Connor Doherty. The Mariners scored the only goal in the period when Adam Samuelsson registered his first of the season. Trois-Rivières’ Émond was solid in goal, stopping 36 of the 37 shots he faced in the game. With less than a minute remaining in the period, Maine’s Adam Mechura looked to have scored and tied the game, but it was disallowed as it was judged to be the result of a hand pass. Final score: Lions-2, Mariners-1.