The York University Lions men's hockey team hosted the Laurier Golden Hawks on Saturday night at Canlan Ice Sports in the final home game of a three-game homestand and their final home game of the 2024.
The visitors opened the scoring with just over nine minutes left in the opening period. A shot from the point by Tyler Hunt went wide, but the rebound caromed off the end boards to Eli Reimer was stationed at the side of the cage to put it home and make it 1-0 Laurier.
The score stayed that way until early in the second when York defencemen Lucas Eagle ventured off the bench to join the play deep in the offensive zone, took a pass from Olivier Lamothe and buried it to get the Lions back on level terms.
From there, it was all Laurier. They scored the next three goals, including the go-ahead goal from Evan Benwell near the game's halfway mark. He broke in on a two-on-one down the near side, dragged and fired one over the blocker Matt Tovell to make it 2-1. Then, just over three minutes later, Justin O'Donnell stripped a puck in the offensive zone, moved into the circle and beat Tovell to make it 3-1 Hawks after two.
They extended the lead to three under half a minute into the final frame. On what was a bit of a broken play, Thomas Lenart's shot was partially blocked by Hunter Brown, but the rebound was blockered down by Tovell and put home by Sam Rhodes to make it 4-1 Laurier.
Keeton Oakley responded for the hosts six minutes and change into the period after a David Mabey point shot was stopped by Golden Hawks goaltender Paris O'Brien, but Oakley was able to collect and bury the rebound to cut the lead to two.
That was as close as York would get, as Laurier added a fifth marker on Reimer's second of the night to close out a 5-2 win for Laurier.
LOOKING AHEAD:
The Lions close the fall term with a pair of games in Montreal next weekend. That starts Friday night against the McGill Redbirds, with puck drop scheduled for 7:30 pm before the Lions battle the Concordia Stingers next Saturday at 2:00 pm to finish the 2024 portion of the schedule.
