York wins in a Friday night thriller
Alyssa Dool
Contributor
@excalweb
There’s a huge difference between watching a hockey game and enjoying one. The Lions played a game February 10 that was impossible to not enjoy. It’s rare for a game to carry so much suspense—so much uncertainty, and although those situations can be stressful, this game was just pure excitement.
The game went through varied phases: anticipation, disappointment, excitement, relief, and joy. There’s nothing better than getting so caught up in players’ actions that you start to feel as though you’re on the ice with them. Friday’s game definitely impacted fans for both teams, when the players felt tired, the fans were tired; when the players were excited, the fans were ecstatic. Most importantly though, Friday’s fourth-place-regaining win was a team effort. The Lions played like their namesake and showed their opponents what pride looks like on ice.
February 10 was the last home game of the regular season for the York Lions and they played solid for the majority of the game. The Lions started the first period with full-on intensity and scored three goals—one them being by graduating defenceman Matt Thomson.
However, during the second period Guelph Gryphons were able to swoop in and score two goals bringing the two-point lead to a tie.
“We got a little chippy,” says Jesse Messier when asked what was happening during the second period. “We ringed in some penalties and we got a little chippy and a little sloppy. We were still going hard, but I think we let away from our defences a little though and we could have played better in our own end.”
There was a point in the game where Lions fans thought the Gryphons would pull ahead and begin leading the game. But to the Lions’ bliss, this never happened.
It was as though this call woke up the Lions and they began playing with the fervour we had seen in the first period.
“We came back hard at the end of second though,” says Andrew Clouthier, and it’s true—two goals were scored at the end of second bringing the game to the 5-3 lead that fans would see on the score board until the end of third. The final goal was scored by Clouthier during a power play with a minute left until the end of second period.
Sometimes a team will rely on a few players to make the plays and to be the major goal scorers, on Friday the Lions showed what it means to play like a team. Success was a team effort and it was refreshing to see a university team that played as a group and wasn’t supported by a few key players. In fact, goal scoring was a shared effort on February 10: five different players made each shot.
Although the game went well, there was some rough patches. Both Andrew Clouthier and Jesse Messier agreed: the Lions have to start playing for the full 60 minutes.
When the Lions are playing at full intensity, they are the ones controlling the game—it was obvious when watching them play on Friday. However, when they start to slow down they’re too easily taken over. The Gryphons were able to snag their additional two points because the Lions were somewhere not on the ice.
“We’ve been a little sluggish the past few games, we really need to step our game up to be prepared for the playoffs,” says Messier. “We have to play a full 60 minutes, like we played the last 20 in third today. We have to bring that intensity right at the beginning of games.”
If the Lions learn to keep their skates and wits on the ice for the full 60 minutes, playoff season may be very interesting to watch.
