After Friday night’s demoralizing 8-1 loss to the Maine Mariners at Colisée Vidéotron, the Lions made the overnight bus trip to Glens Falls, New York in anticipation of Saturday night’s match-up against North Division leaders Adirondack Thunder. Starting in goal for Trois-Rivières was Joe Vrbetic while Adirondack countered with Vinnie Purpura, who sports a 12-3 record with two of his three losses coming in overtime.
The Lions took advantage of Adirondack being without one of their top scorers – Patrick Grasso – in the lineup and had several goal scoring opportunities, but came up empty. As it turned out it was only the Thunder’s Ryan Orgel who found the back of the net, scoring at 5:05 of the first period to give Adirondack at 1-0 lead.
The Lions had the upper hand offensively in the second period, outshooting the Thunder by a margin of 19-13. The barrage of shots ultimately paid off when Anthony Beauregard tied the score at 1-1. Adirondack was only able to ice 14 players as two succumbed to injury, however Jace Isley was able to return by the end of the period.
The third period was a scoreless affair, thus necessitating overtime. In overtime the Lions’ Vrbetic saved the day by making a key stop, and then at 3:56 Jakov Novak scored to give the Lions the win, putting a stop to Adirondack’s 12-game winning streak.
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