Portland, Maine, April 4, 2025 – (Montreal Canadiens affiliate) Lions de Trois-Rivières clinched the ECHL’s North Division title with a 6-4 victory over the (Boston Bruins affiliate) Maine Mariners Friday night in Portland, Maine.
The Lions dominated the majority of the first period but were unable to beat Maine netminder Brad Arvinitis, who stopped all 16 shots he faced. The Mariners’ offensive efforts weren’t as pronounced, but that didn’t prevent them from being first on the scoreboard when Robert Cronin dipsy-doodled around Brycen Martin and then beat goaltender Hunter Jones to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
The Lions continued to apply pressure in the second period and that strategy paid off quickly when Chris Jandric and Andrew Coxhead each scored in the first minute of the period to give the Lions a 2-1 lead. The Lions then scored two more off the sticks of Xavier Cormier and Martin and it was 4-1 for Trois-Rivières by the 6:38 mark. The Mariners reduced the margin to 4-2 shortly thereafter with a power play tally and could have made it even closer a bit later as they had a two-man advantage for over a minute but failed to capitalize. To add insult to injury, the Lions scored once the teams were back to even strength when Justin Ducharme scored his eighth of the season to make the score 5-2 after 40 minutes of play.
Trois-Rivières’ Isaac Dufort made it 6-2 just 20 seconds into the third period, and although the Mariners initiated a comeback with Sebastian Vidmar and Zachary Massicotte each beating Jones to make the score 6-4, that would turn out to be as close as the New Englanders would get and the Lions skated off the ice as North Division champions.
The Lions and Mariners will play the third game of their four-game series Saturday night with puck drop at 6:00 p.m. in Portland.
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