With a ticket to the playoffs already punched due to a Nipissing Lakers win earlier Saturday afternoon, the York University Lions took the ice on senior night at Canlan Ice Sports to play out their last regular season game of the 2024-25 season against the OUA's top seed, the Guelph Gryphons. A pre-game ceremony honoured the Lions three graduating seniors, goaltender Dominique Chuaqui, forward Sydney Hiltz and defender Ava Ricker-Singh.
The first period proved to be tight-checking, with neither team able to control the puck consistently. It was Guelph who struck first, off an unassisted rush by Avery Robinson, who finished it with a wrist shot past Chuaqui, who made the start for York in her final regular-season game as a Lion, to put the Gyphons up 1-0. The Lions went on a power play with late in the first, but could not find the equalizer by the end of the period.
Guelph extended their lead four minutes into the second, where a scramble in front of the net ended up with Jaydyn Calder potting a loose puck past Chuaqui, putting the Gryphons up 2-0. Almost a minute later, Maeve Sutherland-Case broke it open for the Gyphons by sneaking yet one behind Chuaqui, off an assist by Jaime Magoffin that let Guelph take a 3-0 lead. However, the Lions got one back, where Kaitlin Teixeira put a rebound past Sophie Helfenstein to cut the lead to 3-1. This remained the score after two.
Guelph restored their three-goal lead three minutes into the third off the stick of Jessica Teskey, who scored to make it 4-1. York was forced to fight off two penalties in quick succession, which had the Lions on their heels for a good chunk of the period. With so little time left to work with. They did have four power plays of their own in the final frame, including 1:21 of 5-on-3, but could not convert on any of the four and fell by a 4-1 count.
LOOKING AHEAD:
Following the end of the regular season, the Lions have a date with the Windsor Lancers in the OUA West play-in game on Thursday night Thursday night. Stay tuned to yorkulions.ca for more information on puck drop time.
