The York University Lions women's hockey team faced a tough challenge on Sunday afternoon with a game against the first-place Queen's Gael and were defeated by a score of 4-0.
 
Queen's goaltender Stephanie Pascal earned the shutout in net while making 19 saves. Her counterpart at the other end, York's Lauren Dubie, stopped 18 of the 22 shots she faced in the loss.
 
The Gaels wasted little time setting the tone early, scoring twice in the opening 10 minutes of play. Hailey Wilson opened the scoring just 4:20 into the game, and Alex Maw added another at 9:42 for a 2-0 advantage after one period.
 
The Gaels again scored in the first five minutes of the second, this time off the stick of OUA scoring leader Katrina Manoukarakis. It was the only goal of the frame and gave the Gaels a 3-0 lead.
 
The third period played out in similar fashion, with the Gaels scoring at 4:32 by Kaylie Dennis and Pascal turning aside all of the Lions shots. The game ended with Queen's up by the four goals.
 
The Lions dropped to 6-0-11-3 with the loss and remain in 10^th place in the OUA standings. The Gaels extended their lead atop the conference to three points with a 12-3-2-3 record.
 
The Lions have just four games remaining on the regular-season schedule and will face the Western Mustangs twice in the next two weeks, first on home ice at Canlan Ice Sports on Saturday night at 7pm and then the following week in London, Ont.