The York University Lions men's hockey team hosted the second game of the first-round Queen's Cup playoff series against the Lakehead Thunderwolves Saturday night facing elimination but pulled off a 4-2 victory to force a deciding Game 3.
 
The series began with the second-longest men's hockey game in OUA history, a 3-2 triple overtime thriller that Lakehead won courtesy of Dylan Butler. The Thunderwolves outshot the Lions 76-51 in that contest, but the Lions turned the table in this game and outshot the Thunderwolves 42-23.
 
The Lions battled hard in the first period and their efforts paid off 14 minutes in when rookie forward Morgan Messenger was able to score, giving the Lions a 1-0 lead. He was assisted by Colton Vannucci and Justin Bean.
 
This excitement was short-lived, however, as the Thunderwolves' Scott Gall scored unassisted just two minutes later, tying the score 1-1. The score remained this way for the rest of the period.
 
Vannucci added another goal for the Lions at 2:04 in the second period. Assisting him was Nick Zottl to give the Lions the lead once again at 2-1.
 
The Lions held onto this lead longer than the last time, but eventually the Thunderwolves came back to tie the game again. Trevor Hynnes scored at 13:35 in the second period, assisted by Dillon Donnelley and Austin McDonald, and the period once again ended in a tie, this time 2-2.
 
After a scoreless first half of the third period, Alex Mowbray tallied the Lions' third goal of the game, bumping the Lions back into the lead at 3-2. Mowbray was assisted by Stefano Pezzetta.
 
In the final few seconds of the game, Kyle Campbell added a final goal for the Lions on an empty Thunderwolves net to guarantee the win.
 
Game 3 will take place on Sunday night at 7pm at Canlan Ice Sports, with the winner advancing to the OUA quarter-finals beginning next week.