The No. 5 nationally-ranked York University Lions men's hockey team was handed its first loss of the season on Thursday night with a 6-2 defeat to the Laurier Golden Hawks in Waterloo, Ont.
 
The Lions were the last undefeated team in the OUA but still remain atop the OUA West standings after Thursday's result, with a 6-1 record. The Golden Hawks sit just behind the Lions with a 5-1-1 mark.
 
It was the Lions who got on the scoreboard first when Colton Vannucci scored his fourth of the season at 7:31 of the first period to give the Lions an early 1-0 lead. The rest of the period played out without another goal and York carried its one-goal advantage into the first intermission.
 
It didn't take long for the Golden Hawks to find the equalizer in the second as Anthony Sorrentino scored just 2:57 into the frame to make it 1-1. The Golden Hawks went on to dominate the rest of the period, scoring twice more at 10:32 and 17:58 from Erik Pushka and Andrew Fritsch, respectively, and the home team led 3-1 after two.
 
The beginning of the third started out similar to the second as the Golden Hawks upped their lead to three just 27 seconds in on a goal by Danny Hanlon.
 
The Lions finally found the back of the net again at 10:20 of the final period with Scott Feser's tally, but just 1:02 later the Golden Hawks got it right back thanks to Jeremy Pullara. Kyle Jenkins added an empty netter to round out the scoring.
 
Rookie forward Morgan Messenger finished with a pair of assists in the contest.
 
York goaltender Mack Shields, an OUA all-star and U SPORTS all-Canadian last year, had an uncharacteristically tough night in net, allowing five goals on the 23 shots he faced. His counterpart at the other end of the rink, Colin Furlong, stopped 31 of 33 shots to record the win.
 
The Lions have a busy week and will be back in action on Saturday night at home, when the Waterloo Warriors come to Canlan Ice Sports for a contest beginning at 7pm. They will also host the Guelph Gryphons on Sunday night at the same time.