A post-holiday victory that feels oh so good!

The Lions and their ECHL Canadian rivals the Newfoundland Growlers faced off Wednesday evening at Colisée Vidéotron. The last time the Growlers visited Trois-Rivières the Newfoundlanders were swept in a three-game series, so no doubt revenge was on their mind. Joe Vrbetic got the nod to start in goal for the Lions while the Growlers countered with Luke Cavallin in nets.

The Lions opened the scoring early in the first period when Jakov Novak found the back of the net at the 2:37 mark, with Charles-Antoine Paiement earning his first point of the season with an assist. The Growlers responded at 5:55 when Neil Shea tied the game with assists going to Tate Singleton and Brock Caufield.

The Lions unleashed a goalapalooza in the second period, scoring four times. That Christmas break sure looked like it did the team wonders! The Lions’ Novak scored his second goal of the game at 2:08, and then at 14:06 it was Alex-Olivier Voyer who gave Trois-Rivières a 3-1 lead. Newfoundland’s Todd Skirving was assessed a game misconduct for an illegal hit to Noah Laaouan’s head, and the Lions wasted no time to capitalize with Novak completing his first-ever hat trick with the Lions, and then 15 seconds later it was Voyer again, making the score 5-1.

The Growlers mounted a comeback in the third period, with Isaac Johnson scoring at 1:32 to make it 5-2, and then at 12:48 Jonny Tychonick brought Newfoundland even closer when his marker made it 5-3. But that would be as close as the Growlers would get, and the Lions’ Brycen Martin scored into an empty net to seal the deal and give Trois-Rivières a 6-3 victory.