The York University Lions men's hockey team returned to Canlan Ice Sports in search of redemption against the Queen's Gaels on Saturday night after the Gaels handed them a 6-3 loss in Kingston on Oct. 5.

York was coming in off a hard-fought 6-4 loss to the Carleton Ravens in Ottawa less than 24 hours before hosting the Gaels in a scheduling oddity. The Lions were going to be in tough against a Gaels team with its sights set on second place in the East.

York netminder Alex Chu made his first career OUA start after Matt Tovell started Friday night replacing the injured Carter Serhyenko, who was hurt in the shootout at UQTR last Saturday.

The Lions struck first 4:18 in as rookies Hunter Brown and Olivier Lamothe executed a 2-on-1 to perfection, with Brown finding Lamothe, who then slid it back to Brown for the tap-in into a yawning cage, giving the home side an early lead.

The Gaels nearly responded right at the 7:00 mark of the opening period, but a spectacular sprawling save from Chu off Jordan Graham kept the Gaels off the board. Despite heavy pressure at times from Queen's, who outshot York 14-7 in the first, the Lions led 1-0 through 20.

The Gaels drew even on a power play with just under 8:00 left in the middle frame. Off a scrambled draw, it eventually ended up on the stick of Luke Peric. He found Derek Hamilton down low, who sent a sweet feed in front to Liam Tanner, and he made no mistake, as the Gaels finally solved Chu to tie things at one.

The score stayed deadlocked through the remainder of regulation, despite some excellent chances for both teams, including a breakaway for Lions defenceman Klim Georgiev with about 6:00 to play in regulation, but he was robbed by Queen's netminder Aidan Spooner.

The Gaels had a breakaway of their own in the extra frame, as Hamilton got behind the York defence in a bid for his second of the night, but Chu made one of his 36 saves on the night to keep the Lions alive. However, Queen's summoned the winenr moments later. Off another offensive zone faceoff win, Trevor Longo played one down for Nolan Hutcheson along the half-wall. He saw a line to the net, drove hard to the front of the goal and slid one under Chu to win it for Queen's, 2-1, in a thriller at Canlan Ice.

LOOKING AHEAD: 

The Lions continue their three-game homestand Friday when they battle the Nipissing Lakers at . Puck drop is scheduled for 8:00 PM