The York University Lions men's hockey team battled the McGill Redbirds on Friday night at Place Bell in Laval, Que., with McGill's McConnell Arena in Montreal closed for renovation. With the Redbirds holding a season record of 8-6, and the Lions at 2-7-4, the Lions looked to build off earning points in four of their previous six games. 

McGill struck first, netting a goal within the first two minutes off the stick of forward Stephane Huard, with Maxime Pellerin and Zachary Gallant drawing the assists to make it 1-0 Redbirds.  

Despite McGill pacing play early,  the Lions would tie it up. Moments after Olivier Lamothe was denied the equalizer on a breakaway, a shot from the point from Brandon Walker was tipped on goal by Owen Gilhula, who then put home the rebound. That knotted the game at 1-1 near the end of the first period. Just over a minute later, though, the Lions were the recipients of an awful break after a pass from Mathieu Gagnon took an unfortunate bounce off a Lion stick and in, giving the Redbirds back the lead, 2-1. Then, with just six seconds left in a period, a drive from McGill's Maxime Blanchard got past Lions goaltender Carter Serhyenko to make it a 3-1 game after one  

The Redbirds went to their first power play of the night early in the second, and Huard ripped home his second of the night, with William Rouleau adding the only assist. However, York's Hunter Brown got the Lions back in the game, hammering a shot past McGill netminder Fabio Iacobo. Brandon Walker and Lucas Theriault earned the assists on the goal that made it 4-2 Redbirds. However, Rouleau and Brandon Frattaroli added goals later in the period to secure make it a 6-2 McGill lead after 40.  

Gilhula netted his second of the game early in the third, but McGill got it right back 18 seconds later courtesy of Mikisiw Awashish to round out the scoring in a 7-3 Redbird win. 

Despite allowing all seven goals, Lions goalie Carter Serhyenko had a solid return to the net for York after missing the previous four games with injury. He made 44 saves on 51 Redbirds shots in a losing cause. 

LOOKING AHEAD:  

The Lions will remain in Quebec to face the Concordia Stingers on Saturday afternoon at 2:00pm. Coverage will be available on OUA TV as the Lions look to hand the Stingers their first regulation loss of the season.