Emily Goodwin | Editor-in-Chief
Featured image courtesy of Jeremy Zheng/York Lions
The Lions were looking to snap their 11-game losing streak this past weekend, and did just that when they travelled to St. Catharines to take on the Brock Badgers on Thursday. However, when they returned onto home ice the following night to take on the Guelph Gryphons, they could not repeat their success.
The Lions had defeated the Badgers by one point at the beginning of the season, but the Badgers had in turn won their last contest by the same margin.
In Thursday’s match, the Lions beat the Badgers 5-4 in overtime. Tyler Higgins got the Lions onto the scoreboard first, netting a goal at 13:37. Twenty seconds later, Xavier Pouliot added a second goal for the Lions. Brendan Browne assisted on both of these goals.
The Lions added two more goals in the second period, the first of these coming from Justin Bean. Brandon Yeamans followed up with another goal less than a minute later, bringing the score to 4-0 for the Lions.
In the last half of the same period, the Badgers took control of the puck and scored three consecutive goals. Tyler Rollo scored twice and Jordan Sambrook added another to close out the period one point behind the Lions at 4-3.
The Badgers tied the score in the third period when Ayden MacDonald scored on a power play. Neither team was able to score after that, and the game went into overtime.
Early in the period, the Lions were able to once again find the back of the Badgers’ net and regained the lead at 5-4. This goal came off the stick of Nic Coric, with Yeamans and Mark Wilson assisting.
The Lions’ defence stayed strong for the rest of the game, and the Lions took home their first win since November.
Friday’s match against the Gryphons was a tough contest. The Gryphons had defeated the Lions in both of their prior matches this season, and were looking for a third. The Gryphons achieved just that, edging out the Lions in overtime for a final score of 4-3.
The Gryphons scored early in the period, with Mikkel Aagaard and Justin Lemcke teaming up to get past Lions goaltender Cole Ceci. After battling it out for another 18 minutes, the Lions found their way to the Gryphons’ net. Peter De Coppi scored first for the Lions, and was assisted by Coric and Browne. The first period ended tied 1-1.
The Gryphons took the lead in the second period. Ryan Valentini and Ted Nichol scored once each to put the Gryphons up 3-1 over the Lions.
Shortly after Nichol’s goal, Morgan Messenger of the Lions found his way to the net. Alex Mowbray and Scott Feser assisted on this goal.
The Lions scored again in the third period while keeping the Gryphons at bay. Bean scored his second goal of the weekend, with Feser and Messenger assisting. This left the game tied at 3-3, and the game went into overtime once again.
This overtime did not go as well for the Lions as it did the night before. Connor Bramwell of the Gryphons scored 40 seconds into play, and the Lions were unable to regain the lead. The game ended 4-3 in favour of the Gryphons.
The Lions are now at 6-16 for the season, up to 14 points but still last in the OUA West rankings.
They will be back in action tomorrow on Wednesday, January 29 at 7:00 p.m. to take on the Badgers once again, this time at Canlan Ice Sports.
