Box Score Waterloo, Ont. - The Golden Hawks clashed with the York Lions in a thrilling Thursday night battle at Sun Life Financial Arena. While the Golden Hawks fought valiantly, York's strong first period was enough to lift the Lions to victory.
The first period opened with a flurry of York goals. Ethan Strik began the scoring for York on a nice feed from Jacob Vreugdenhil 3:43 into the first period. Strik's icebreaker was closely followed by goals from Aiden MacIntosh and Connor Senken, giving the Lions a commanding 3-0 lead just 5:19 into the first.
In the closing minutes of the opening period, the Golden Hawks found life as first-year Caleb Petrie poked the puck past York's Carter Serhyenko for his second goal of the campaign.
However, the York Lions were able to re-establish their three-goal lead as Brock McLean found the back of Laurier's net just before the period expired.
After the first intermission, the Golden Hawks seemed to find their groove and began to control the game. On a powerplay opportunity, Declan Graham fired a shot from the blue line and Bryce Sutherland banged home the rebound to reduce York's lead to two.
Laurier kept their foot on the gas throughout the second period and were rewarded again when first-year Isaac Sooklal sent a pass for forward Tyler Davis to one-time past Serhyenko. The goal was the second-year's second goal of the season, tying last year's total in just 7 games.
The final twenty minutes of hockey was a battle for control. Laurier had scoring opportunities during sustained pressure, but were unable to put the equalizer past Serhyenko and after sixty minutes of play, the Golden Hawks fell 4-3 against the York Lions.
The loss comes after a successful Ottawa road trip where Laurier played two great games and nabbed 3 of 4 available road points. "Consistency is everything in this league and most nights in this league hard work beats skill," says manager of men's hockey operations and head coach Kevin Forrest.
"The first twenty we just weren't good. Not issuing hits, turning pucks over, guys weren't skating," he says, "I thought we responded well and certainly owned the rest of the game, but it is a tough situation to get yourself out of."
PLUS/MINUS
Plus + Trust in Christian Propp
Most goalies would get pulled after allowing 3 goals in the opening five minutes of a game. But Forrest elected to keep Propp in the net because "if anybody has earned a chance to turn the things around, it's him. He's a gamer. We asked him to shut the door, and he did."
Plus + First-years
Isaak Sooklal had a pair of apples last night. He is currently tied for the lead on the Golden Hawks in scoring with veteran Sullivan Sparkes.
Bryce Sutherland potted his second of the season last night. He now has three points in his last three games. "Bryce is starting to stand out and he's starting to realize that he belongs here and can play with anyone in this league. He's an effective player and he's got some effective hands around the net," said Forrest.
UP NEXT
The Golden Hawks are back at home on Saturday night when they will face off against the Nipissing Lakers. The Golden Hawks have not played Nippising since 2018 when they won 3-1. The puck drops at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now!
If you can't be at the game, follow the action on X (formerly Twitter) @WLUAthletics or watch live on OUA.tv.
