Queen’s clinches the playoffs in win over York

The Men’s Hockey team secures a 5-2 victory

Goals came from Duff, Fowler, Michaud, Marburg, and Lalonde.

What started out as a rough game led to a playoff spot clinched for the Queen’s Men’s Hockey team as they took on the York Lions at home on Jan. 31.

The puck dropped at 7:30 p.m. in the Memorial Centre and Queen’s won the first face-off, but 24 seconds later it was York who was on the scoreboard first.

Now behind 1-0, the Gaels had to get themselves out of a very early deficit.

Captain Jack Duff, ArtSci ’25, scored the first goal of the game, with assists from Derek Hamilton, ArtSci ’27, and Cameron Tolnai, Comm ’27.

“It was the first goal, it got us in the game,” Duff said in a post-game press conference. “I think it’s just, keep shooting pucks and eventually they’ll go in.”

Six minutes later, the Gaels had a close scoring opportunity when the puck slid past the York goaltender, but it stopped between him and the goal line, and the Gaels missed the chance to push it in before the whistle blew to stop a pile up.

With seven minutes remaining in the period, York raised the score to 2-1.

Jonathan Yantiss, ArtSci ’24, was given a penalty for hooking with less than three minutes remaining in the first period. This put York onto the powerplay with an opportunity to extend the lead.

Despite successfully killing off the first period penalty, the period ended without any further goals, which was disappointing for some players on the team.

“When we played U of T [University of Toronto] and Concordia, we played strong hockey and I think we met our standard. That’s our standard,” Duff said. “We can’t drop our standard to play down to teams below us in the standings.”

Coming into the second period down a goal, Gaels player Hayden Fowler, ArtSci ’25, secured another goal, with assists from Samuel Marburg, ArtSci ’27, and Duff, bringing the score up to 2-2.

About seven minutes into the second period, the Gaels were ahead for the first time all game following a goal from Daniel Michaud, ArtSci ’27, assisted by Jacob Paquette, ArtSci ’27.

“[I] couldn’t really tell you how it went down,” Michaud said after the game. “All I know is that I got a good pass from my D-man [defensive player] and gave and go with Hayden Fowler, my centreman, and it worked out.”

York was awarded a tripping penalty with just under eight minutes remaining in the second period and the Gaels saw their first and only powerplay of the game.

The score was 3-2 for the Gaels at the end of the second period.

The first five minutes of the third period were quite dormant.

With 11 minutes left in the game, Marburg got himself a goal to go with his earlier assist on Fowler, making the score 4-2 for the Gaels. Returning the favour, Marburg’s goal was assisted by Fowler.

“I’m blessed to be able to play with some good players like Fowler and Michaud and some other guys along the way, and they make me look good,” Marburg said.

York landed their third powerplay after a tripping call on Gaels forward Holden Katzalay, Comp ’25, with eight and a half minutes left in the period. The Gaels killed off the penalty with only one shot on net.

With about four minutes remaining, the Gaels extended their lead to 5-2 with a goal from Owen Lalonde, ArtSci ’25, assisted by Marburg and Fowler.

The game concluded at 5-2, marking an exciting moment for the Gaels’ 2023-24 roster when they celebrated clinching a playoff spot.

“We’ve always known we’re a really good team,” Duff said. “We can play with all the top teams and we were fortunate it happened.”

The Gaels also found themselves among the Top 10 U SPORTS Men’s Hockey rankings this week, coming in 10th place.

In a previous post-game interview, Gibson told The Journal the OUA was the toughest league to play in U SPORTS. Tonight, Michaud echoed the sentiment, describing it as a bigger, bolder, and stronger league.

“I think we took a step backwards and I didn’t really like our game tonight,” Head Coach Brett Gibson said. “But you find time to win in the season and they found that tonight.”

The Gaels’ next Kingston game is the Carr-Harris Cup on Feb. 8 against the Royal Military College [RMC] Paladins at the Slush Puppie Place (formerly known as the Leon’s Centre).

“[We’ll] hopefully have some fun,” Marburg said about the Carr-Harris Cup game. “My parents are in town so I’m looking forward to seeing them and playing in front of probably the most fans I’ve ever played in front of.”

Tickets are available now on Ticketmaster. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Tags

brett gibson, Daniel Michaud, Jack Duff, Men's hockey, Samuel Marburg

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content