The York University Lions men's hockey team opened up their second half of the season with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues at Canlan Ice Sports on Friday, Jan 4.

After having been in York's offensive end throughout most of the first five minutes of the game, U of T had a great scoring chance against the Lions, however, it was saved by York's goaltender Mack Shields.

Following Shields save, the Lions skated the puck down to the Blues' end with a passing play between Reid Jackman and Sal Filice who passed the puck to Scott Feser who scored the first goal for the Lions at 5:14.

The Blues were able to get a scoring opportunity following the Lions' goal as they charged towards the Lions' offensive end. However, Shields was once again able to block the goal, this time with a nice pad save. The crowd cheered at Shields' save, however, Toronto's forward Curtis Harvey was able to turn it around and score the first goal for the visiting team, tying up the game 1-1.

The second period saw zero goals scored by either team. However, there were great offensive tries from both sides with the Lions shooting ten times at the Blues' net and the Blues shooting six at the Lions.

The third period saw a great opportunity for the Lions as they almost scored their second goal during a power play but the goal was waved off by the referee and the score remained 1-1.

With five seconds left of the third period, the Blues were able to get a hold of the puck on the Lions' side of the rink and were able to fire a shot, which was saved by Shields. This brought the teams into a five minute 3-on-3 overtime.

During overtime, the sole scorer of the game on the Lions side, Feser, was able to score the second and final goal of the game for the Lions with just two minutes remaining, giving the Lions a 2-1 win in their first game back to snap out of a four game losing streak.

Shields was able to save 26 shots on goal and Toronto goalie Alex Bishop was able to save 19.

The Lions will be playing tomorrow, Saturday Jan 5 at Canlan Ice Sports at 7pm in the Mark Cross Memorial Game, where the former Lion will be honoured in a pre-game ceremony and have his number 18 retired by the team.