The No. 10 nationally-ranked York University Lions men's hockey team fell to the Waterloo Warriors by a score of 4-1 Friday night (Nov. 20) at Canlan Ice Sports.
 
The Lions came roaring out of the gates in the early part of the first period on Friday night as Tyler Mort (Keswick, Ont.) and Derek Sheppard (Ajax, Ont.) both hit the crossbar within the first two minutes of the frame.
 
Waterloo came back firing and the Warriors began to apply pressure on Lions goaltender Chris Perugini King City, Ont.). Eventually they managed to sneak a puck by him, with Riley Sonnenburg crashing the net on a shot from the corner and poking the rebound across the crease at the 12:45 mark of the first period.
 
Later in the first period the Warriors were on the attack once again, this time with a cross ice tape-to-tape pass from Phillip Fife to Daniel Perigo that found the back of the net as Perugini couldn't get across in time to make the save, giving the Warriors a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
 
Moments into the second period the Warriors drew a penalty on the Lions and sent out their power play unit. With the man advantage the Warriors moved the puck around effectively and found the open man, Adam Bignell, at the point where Bignell wired a shot past Perugini to give the Warriors a commanding 3-0 lead.
 
The goaltending performance by Mike Morrison of the Warriors in the first two periods was top notch as Morrison turned aside all 23 shots he faced going into the third. 
 
The entire game up until late in the third period saw only two penalties called, but this trend would change as the Warriors took five penalties late which allowed the Lions to crawl back into the game. As a 5-on-3 advantage concluded for the Lions, and as the Warrior player jumped out of the box, Trevor Petersen (Thornhill, Ont.) redirected a point shot from Sheppard which cut the Warriors lead to 3-1.  But that was as close as the Lions would come, as the Warriors iced the game with an empty net goal to give the Lions their first regulation loss at home this season.

The Lions are now 7-2-3 on the year and remain in second place in the OUA West standings, while the Warriors improved to 5-8-0.
 
The Lions will be back on the ice on Saturday (Nov. 21) as they welcome the CIS top-ranked McGill Redmen to Canlan Ice Sports at 7pm.