Emily Goodwin | Editor-in-Chief
Featured Image: The Lions ended the 2019-2020 season with a win over Laurier. | Courtesy of Jeremy Zheng/York Lions
The Lions men’s hockey team wrapped up their season last week, where they fell to the Ryerson Rams on Wednesday 5-3 but prevailed over the Laurier Golden Hawks 2-1 on Saturday.
Wednesday’s away game against the nationally-ranked Rams saw the lead go back and forth in the first period. Following Jesse Barwell’s goal for the Rams in the second minute, Brandon Yeamans scored shorthanded for the Lions. Justin Bean and David Sherman recorded assists on this goal.
Xavier Pouliot added the Lions second goal a few minutes later, with Peter De Coppi and Brendan Browne assisting. It looked like the Lions would have the lead heading into the first intermission, but with one second left on the clock the Rams squashed their lead with a goal from Matt Mistele — who had assisted on Barwell’s earlier goal — to tie the score at 2-all.
The Rams continued to dominate their home arena throughout the second period. They added two more goals, both during power plays: the first coming off the stick of Hayden McCool and assisted by Gregory DiTomaso and Mistele, and the second from David Miller with help from Mistele and Garrett Forrest.
The Lions had a 4-2 deficit to try to make up heading into the final period. After battling it out for the first half of the period, Morgan Messenger was able to put the puck past Rams’ goaltender Forrest to put the Lions within one point of the Rams. Alex Mowbray assisted Messenger on his goal.
With time running out, the Lions made a last-ditch effort to tie the score by taking their goaltender, Cole Ceci, out of the net to put an extra player on. This backfired though, and Devon Paliani was able to score on the Lions’ empty net, putting the final score up to 5-3.
The Lions were looking to redeem themselves on home ice Saturday night, and after a hard-fought contest with the Golden Hawks, in the end they came out with the win.
Neither team was able to score in the first period and well into the second period. This gave way when Mowbray broke through the Golden Hawks’ defence and scored with the help of Tyler Higgins and Scott Feser.
The Lions’ lead did not last long. The Golden Hawks bounced back a few minutes later with a power play goal. Matt McJanet scored what would be the Golden Hawks only goal, and Kyle Gentles and Jeremy Pullara assisted.
The Lions broke the tie early in the third period when De Coppi scored unassisted. Despite plenty of opportunities throughout the remainder of the game, a score of 2-1 was the highest either side would climb.
Although they picked up steam at the end of the season, it was not enough to put the Lions into playoff position. The Lions finished the season with a 9-19 record and 20 points, six points behind where they finished last year.
