The York University Lions men's hockey team took a 6-4 victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves with a natural hat trick from rookie Dylan Smoskowitz on Friday (Oct. 10) in Thunder Bay, Ont.
 
Smoskowitz (Richmond Hill, Ont.) scored a pair of goals in 2:03 late in the first period to erase a 2-0 deficit, and he added his third just 20 seconds into the second period to give the Lions their first lead of the game.
 
The Thunderwolves opened up the scoring just two minutes in with a goal by Carson Dubchak, and a two-way assist by E.J. Faust and Brennan Dubchack.
 
The Thunderwolves scored again six minutes later with a goal by Cody Alcock and an assist by David Quesnele.
 
The Lions were falling behind until Smoskowitz (Richmond Hill, Ont.) scored his first with assists to Jay Meloff (Markham, Ont.) and Mark Cross (Strasbourg, Sask.) at 15:51 to put the Lions back into the game, and his tying marker was assisted by Reid Jackman (Etobicoke, Ont.) and Shayne Rover (Newmarket, Ont.).
 
At the end of the first period, the Lions were able to tie the scoring 2-2, shattering the lead of the Thunderwolves.
 
After Smoskowitz's early goal in the second, the Thunderwolves never backed down as Keith Grondin scored an assisted goal from Jason Grecica and Kelin Ainsworth at 4:27 of the second period, tying the game once again.
 
However, only 12 seconds later Colton Vannucci (Calgary) scored with assists by Trevor Petersen (Thornhill, Ont.) and Mikhel Poldma (North York, Ont.), putting the Lions in the lead for good.
 
Vannucci got another goal at 10:26 on a power play to give the Lions a 5-3 lead. Smoskowitz got his fourth point of the night on an assist, while Corey Scott (Calgary) also earned an assist.
 
The Thunderwolves didn't go down without a fight as Faust scored an assisted goal from Mitch Fillman and Nathan Bruyere at 13:16, threatening the Lions' victory. But that was as close as they would get, as Mitch VanTeeling (Brandon, Man.) secured the Lions' win as he scored an assisted goal from Rover just before the end of the period.
 
The Lions held their defence strong in the third period as no goals were scored from either side. The  game ended in a total of 36 shots fired from each side to the opposition's net.
 
The Lions are in fourth place in the OUA West standings with a score of 2-1-0, while the Thunderwolves fell to 0-3-0 with the loss.
 
Up next for the Lions is another game against the Thunderwolves in Thunder Bay, Ont., on Saturday night (Oct. 11) at 7:30pm.