February 18, 2012

LANCERS WIN 5-1, ELIMINATE LIONS FROM PLAYOFFS

The York University Lions men's hockey team was eliminated from the post-season with a 5-1 loss to the Windsor Lancers at Canlan Ice Sports on Saturday night (Feb. 18) in Game 2 of their best-of-three first round series.

The Lancers also won the first game on home ice on Thursday night by a 5-4 score in overtime.

The difference in the game was Windsor goaltender Parker Van Buskirk (Windsor, Ont.), who was stellar between the pipes in making 41 saves on 42 shots in the game. The Lions outshot the Lancers in each period, including by a 12-7 margin in the third while desperately trying to get back into the contest, but Van Buskirk stood tall on each one and stoned the Lions on multiple occasions.

Windsor captain Matt McCready (Kingsville, Ont.) led all players with three points on the night, including a power play goal and two assists, while Spencer Pommels (Grand Prairie, Alta.), Ryan Green (Essex, Ont.) and Evan Stibbard (Windsor, Ont.) all tallied a goal and an assist.

Also scoring for the Lancers was Steve Ferry (Richmond Hill, Ont.), who netted what turned out to be the game winner mid-way through the first period.

Fifth-year forward Rob Labute (Toronto) scored the lone goal for the Lions in his final game with the team. Rookie forward Jordan Forfar (Sutton, Ont.) and defenceman Paul Clancy (Newmarket, Ont.) had the assists on the goal, which was scored on the power play.

The Lancers jumped out to the early 1-0 lead just 3:18 into the game on Pommels's first goal of the post-season. The Lions responded four minutes later, but the Lancers took the lead again on a power play at 9:09 of the first and never looked back.

They extended their lead to 3-1 on another power play goal at 1:17 of the second and pushed it to 4-1 just 17 seconds later on Green's tally. Stibbard put the final nail in the coffin at the 6:14 mark of the period to make it 5-1, and for the last 34 minutes of the game neither goaltender allowed another puck pas them.

Lions netminder Andrew Perugini (King City, Ont.) made 27 saves in the loss.

Despite seeing their season come to an end on Saturday, there is plenty to be optimistic about for the Lions. They won four more games and earned 10 more points in the regular season than they had last year, all while featuring a roster with 15 rookies.

The Lancers now advance to the OUA quarter-finals next week, with their opponent to be determined after the first round concludes on Sunday.