The York University Lions men's hockey team was back at it Saturday night, facing the Queen's Gaels in their second game of the 2024-25 season. The Lions were looking to rebound from a 2-1 loss to the RMC Paladins on Friday night. 

The Lions started fast, winning the opening face-off and \controlling the puck in the Gaels' zone early. The Lions opened the scoring off a won faceoff by Harry Clark. He drew it back to Brandon McCartney, whose writer found its way past Aidan Spooner in the Queen's net. That gave the Lions an early 1-0 lead.  

Queen's responded less than a minute later, as Gaels forward Nolan Hutcheson sped down the wing and had his initial shot stopped but put home his own rebound, tying the game at 1-1. While the Gaels failed to capitalize on a power play in the middle of the first period, they would score two more goals to take a 3-1 lead heading into the second period on tallies from Ethan Larmand and Nolan Ribeau 

The Gaels carried their momentum into the second period, as Daniel Michaud scored off a faceoff win and a feed from Lucas Paric. The Lions answered back with a goal from Lucas Theriault off an assist from Thomas Lacombe, making the game 4-2. 

York killed off a penalty shortly after the goal, and then had a power play of their own late in the second, looking to make it a one-goal game. However, Queen's survived the infraction and got a late power play  that would carry over to the third as the game remained 4-2 in favor of Queen's.  

The game continued to be a back-and-forth affair well into the third period. York cut the Queen's lead to one with just under 4:00 to play, as Brock McLeod centred one that hit the pad of Spooner and trickled past him, making it 4-3. However, the Gaels responded 22 seconds later courtesy of Cameron Tolnai and salted it away on a Hutcheson empty netter to claim a 6-3 victory.  

LOOKING AHEAD:

The Lions will host the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks in their home opener on Friday, October 11 from Canlan Ice Sports. Puck drop is set for 7:15 pm.