Lions devour the Keith's 7-1

By Jonathan Riley

DIGBY COURIER

NovaNewsNow.com

The Lions won. Big time.

The Clare Lions beat the Valley Keith’s 7-1 in Junior C hockey action last night in Clare. “We wanted to make a statement to the league,” said the Lions’ captain Ryan Gallant. “We played bad last week and didn’t show up. So this week we wanted to come out flying, throw more hits, throw more pucks at the net and show people how we can play.”

Third place Valley surprised the first place Lions the last two times they played, 7-6 in November and 5-3 on Friday, Jan. 12.

Valley coach Jim Verran says that might have played a role in this loss. “We thought just by showing up we’d have the same kind of game,” said Verran. “But we didn’t have the same mental attitude and it showed pretty early in the game that we weren’t at that level.”

Pretty early indeed. Marc MacIntosh scored for the Lions only nine seconds in. The Lions rookie player notched an incredible three goals and three assists on the night.

MacIntosh, a first year student at Universite Sainte Anne, was the leading scorer last year with the Yarmouth AA midget team.

He normally plays centre on the Lion’s second line but with Shawn Bernard serving a one-game suspension, Lions GM Francis Robichaud moved him up to the first line. “That paid dividends,” said Robichaud. “He’s a rookie but he’s second on the team in scoring.”

Robichaud says most teams save their big defensive line for Gallant and Bernard and Jacques Lombard, which makes a lot of room for MacIntosh. “He doesn’t get a lot of attention so he’s a good little weapon for us.”

Cody White scored the Keith’s only goal off an assist from Mike Dauphinee.

Clare is in Liverpool tonight to play the last place South Shore Wild at 8:15 p.m.

The Keith’s travel to Barrington tonight for a 7:30 p.m. start against the second place Ice Dogs. Barrington has won all three previous match ups this year: 5-4 Oct. 14, 6-4 Nov. 4 and 6-3 Dec. 22.

The Keith’s trail the Dogs by four points – a win tonight would bring them within two with four games in left in the regular season. Verran says their chances are good. “Tomorrow’s another day. I think we match pretty well against Barrington – when we play like we can play. It didn’t show tonight but on any given night, we can play with any team in this league.”

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