Men's Hockey | 10/7/2025 10:00:00 AM
The York University Lions men's hockey team will be looking for its first win of the season when the visit the Laurier Golden Hawks on Thursday night, before they come back home to play host to the Toronto Varsity Blues in their home opener on Saturday afternoon at Canlan Ice Sports.
York is coming off a 5-1 loss to the Windsor Lancers in their season opener, a game that was 2-1 through two periods before a pair of early-third-period goals blew it open. The Lions dressed only four defencemen in the opener due to injuries, while goaltender Dawson Smith made 44 saves in a losing cause.
The Lions will wrap up their road trip Thursday in Waterloo, against a Golden Hawks team that is unblemished on the year after a pair of road victories over the TMU Bold and the Varsity Blues. Laurier is a team that has gotten off to a great start after winning just five games all of last season, and only two games in regulation, which they've already equaled through the first two games of their year. Their offence, albeit early, has taken a noticeable step forward this season; after averaging just 2.39 goals per game in 2024-25, they have already posted eight in their first two games.
Meanwhile, the red and white will renew hostilities with the Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday at Canlan Ice Sports, in the first of three meetings between the two teams this season. York will look to beat Toronto for the first time since Feb. 10, 2023, a 6-5 overtime win at Varsity Arena, with the winner coming courtesy of veteran defenceman Xavier Pouliot.
The Blues will host the Western Mustangs on Thursday night before making the trip up Line 1 to battle the Lions in Saturday's noontime start. They enter the week off the loss to Laurier on Saturday night, but had beaten the Brock Badgers by a 5-1 count in their season opener on Thursday.
With the Lions struggling to stay healthy early in the season, this week presents an early test for a group needing to get off to a good start to the year in order to stay in the playoff race. While it's early, winning at least one game this week will give York some confidence that they've taken the next step head coach Russ Herrington said his team needed to take to make their first playoff appearance in four years.
Thursday's contest from Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex begins at 7:00 pm, while Saturday's game gets going at 12:00 pm. You can get tickets to Saturday's game here and stream both tilts on OUA TV.
