The York University Lions men's hockey team equalled a season high with six goals on Saturday night in a 6-2 triumph over the Waterloo Warriors at Canlan Ice Sports in their final home game of the 2016 season.
 
The Lions enter the December break with an 11-5-2 record and in second place in the OUA West standings, while the Warriors fell to 5-8-3 and are currently ninth in the division.
 
It didn't take long for the Lions to get on the board in the contest as rookie Daniel Nikandrov (Richmond Hill, Ont.) found the back of the net just 58 seconds into the game for an early 1-0 lead.
 
Seven minutes later the Lions extended their lead on a beautiful breakaway goal by Reid Jackman (Etobicoke, Ont.) to make it 2-0.
 
At 13:34 Trevor Petersen (Thornhill, Ont.) padded the Lions lead, but the Warriors cut the deficit to two only 30 seconds later on Riley Sonnenberg's marker and the first period ended with the Lions leading 3-1.
 
The Lions again scored early in the second on Petersen's second of the night, which came on a power play at 4:36 to increase the lead to 4-1. As they did in the first, the Warriors bounced back quickly and Sam Caldwell scored at 7:11 for a 4-2 York lead.
 
The pace slowed down in the second period but the overall intensity increased as the game turned chippy. At one point mid way through the frame there were eight penalties called in a 90 second span, and the Lions capitalized as team leading scorer Derek Sheppard (Ajax, Ont.) scored for a 5-2 advantage.
 
In the third Bryce Milson (Miramichi, N.B.) redirected a shot by Nick Zottl (Sarnia, Ont.) into the back of the net to round out the scoring.
 
Rookie goaltender Alex Fotinos (Toronto) made 28 saves to earn the win between the pipes, while his Waterloo counterpart, Mike Morrison, stopped 17.
 
The Lions will next return to the ice at the end of December for a pair of exhibition games against the defending U Sports champion UNB Varsity Reds in Fredericton. Their next OUA action is set for Friday, Jan. 6 when the Lions head to London, Ont., for a game against the Western Mustangs.