The York University Lions men's hockey team posted a dominant 6-1 victory over the rival Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday night at Canlan Ice Sports in their final regular-season home game to finish in second place in the OUA West Division standings.
The win tied the Lions with the Ryerson Rams with 35 points apiece, but the Lions earn second place thanks to their 17 wins on the season, compared to 16 by the Rams. The Lions finished with a 17-10-1 record and the Rams 16-9-3.
Toronto had to win in order to qualify for the playoffs and instead will watch from the sidelines for the second straight year after finishing ninth in the division with a record of 11-16-1.
After allowing the opening goal just 5:23 into the first period, which was scored by Dean Klomp, the Lions scored six unanswered goals to win convincingly.
Defenceman
Derek Sheppard got the scoring started just 37 seconds after Klomp's goal to tie the score at 1-1, where it would remain for the rest of the first period.
Midway through the second period,
Daniel Nikandrov scored a shorthanded tally to give the Lions their first lead of the game, and 37 seconds later team captain
Shayne Rover found the back of the net to make the score 3-1. The Lions added another before the end of the period, courtesy of
Kyle Campbell on the power play at 16:12, and the Lions carried their 4-1 advantage into the final frame.
Nikandrov scored his second of the night at 5:34 to stretch the lead, and
Andrew Doyle rounded out the scoring at 6:01.
Nikandrov finished with four points on the night, picking up a pair of assists to go with his two goals, while Sheppard also had two assists for a three-point effort.
Mack Shields bounced back from a tough outing on Thursday, making 32 saves and allowing just the one goal to earn the win in net. Toronto's Andrew Hunt was in net for all six Lions goals and otherwise made 30 saves.
The Lions will now face the seventh-place Lakehead Thunderwolves in the first round of the OUA playoffs, which will begin next week. The full schedule is to be announced.
