The York University Lions women's hockey team opened a massive two-game weekend series against the Queen's Gaels on Saturday night with potentially massive playoff implications.

The Lions entered Saturday nine points back of the Gaels in the OUA East standings. They also trailed the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks by seven points for the final playoff spot. A pair of wins would do wonders for the Lions in their postseason push and a couple of regulation wins would close York to within three points of Queen's.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• The Gaels got on the board early in this one, however. Alyson Reeves finished off a great individual effort on a chip out to centre that she raced onto herself and beat Emma Wedgewood to make it 1-0 Queen's less than five minutes in.
• The home side doubled their lead just over eight minutes into the second. Off a won faceoff, a weak shot from Mallory Thornhill was redirected by Mikayla Cranney and hit the ice twice before skipping past Wedgewood for a 2-0 Gaels lead.
• They added another before the period was out on Reeves' second of the night, and enjoyed a 3-0 lead after 40.
• In the final frame, Logan Biggs was left alone driving to the net and was spotted by Reeves for the Gaels fourth of the game.
• The Lions were able to break the shutout bid of Emma Tennant halfway through the third courtesy of Alexa Giantsopoulos. She came outu of the corner and went hard to the front of the net. Her first shot was stopped, but she located the rebound and put it home to make it 4-1.
• That, however, was as close as the visitors would get, as Queen's picked up a big 4-1 win. The good news for York is Ontario Tech also lost, so the Lions fall no further behind in the playoff race.

LOOKING AHEAD:

These two teams will reconvene on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm in Kingston for what is another huge late-season game for the Lions.