The Laurier Golden Hawks came from behind to defeat the Lancer men's hockey team 4-3 in overtime in game one of the first round of the playoffs.
 
Game two will take place on Friday February 17th at South Windsor Arena. Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:30pm and can be seen live at www.oua.tv.
 
In what was the first playoff meeting between the two schools since 2000, it was the Lancers who jumped ahead early after the Hawks got into penalty trouble in the opening frame. Third year forward Kyle Hope ripped a shot up over the glove of Laurier netminder Colin Furlong, on Windsor's second powerplay of the period to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage after 20 minutes.
 
The Hawks stepped up their game in the second period, outshooting Windsor 18-4 in the frame. Laurier had a number of opportunities to tie the contest during the period but Windsor goalie Blake Richard was up to the task each time, including making impressive gloves saves on Alex Annecchiarico and Alex Adams.
 
However, late in the frame, Laurier was able to break through courtesy of forward Brandon Robinson. After taking a long bounce pass from Adams, he broke in all alone on Richard before dekeing the Lancers' netminder out of position and wrapping the puck around into the empty net to tie the game at one after two periods.
 
Despite the Hawks having momentum on their side heading to the third, it was the Lancers who struck quickly in the third. First, Dylan Denomme put home a loose puck after a bad bounce off the boards before Tyson Ness fired home a Laurier turnover to stake Windsor to a 3-1 lead just five minutes into the frame.
 
The Laurier line of Robinson, Andrew Fritsch and Danny Hanlon started the Laurier comeback. Midway through the third, the trio connected as Hanlon and Robinson combined to set up Fritsch in front of the net to cut the Lancers lead to 3-2.
 
Then, with five minutes remaining, Christian Mroczkowski supplied a highlight-reel goal to tie the game. The forward circled in the neutral zone before splitting the Lancers defence and backhanding the puck past Richard to force overtime.
 
With the shots heavily favouring the Hawks entering overtime, Laurier continued to lean on the Lancers and scored the game-winning goal midway through the first overtime. After keeping the puck in the zone, Adams fired a shot on goal which was kicked out by Richard but it rebounded to Mroczkowski who tucked it in past Richard, giving Laurier the win and a 1-0 series lead.