TORONTO — As the end of the regular season draws near, the Rams men's hockey team took to the road to do battle with the York Lions Wednesday night, crushing their crosstown opponents and picking up an easy two points in a 9-1 victory. With the win, the Rams improved to 11-3-0 on the season and clinched the top spot in the OUA West division with 22 points.   

Just as York's home fans were getting settled, Chris Playfair, Aleks Dimovski, and Kevin Gursoy scored within the game's first seven minutes, flummoxing a desperate Lions squad. Dimovski and Gursoy, both of whom are rookies who have gotten limited playing time this season, notched their first goals as Rams to give their team a swift 3-0 lead. 
 

M??| The Rams are ROLLING!

Gursoy and Dimovski notch their first in the blue and gold to give @RamsMHockey a 3-0 lead ?????#weRrams https://t.co/xicQGgHXXF

— Ryerson Rams (@ryersonrams) March 10, 2022

For the remainder of the frame, the Rams continued to pester York goaltender Cole Ceci, who made a handful of impressive saves to keep things from getting out of hand. Still, York's Brock McLeod beat Rams netminder Garrett Forrest to get the Lions on the board with six minutes remaining in the period, a turn of pace that was immediately reversed when Jesse Barwell was sent down the ice all alone on the penalty kill and wired a laser past Ceci for his seventh of the season. David Miller, a contributor almost as unobtrusive as Barwell, added yet another first period goal to make it 5-1 before the period ended, forcing the Lions to pull Ceci in favour of Dalton Ewing. 

In the second period, a scramble in front of the net led to Jeremiah Addison batting in his fourth of the campaign, extending the Rams' lead to 6-1 before the game's 25th minute had been played. Later in the frame, Miller buried his second of the game to give the Rams a stunning 7-1 lead. 
 

WATCH: pic.twitter.com/HFxHwFykv5

— Rams Men's Hockey (@ramsmhockey) March 10, 2022

During the final 20 minutes, the Rams got themselves into penalty trouble, but managed to keep the Lions at bay and even added to their lead thanks to the persistence of Addison, who registered his second goal of the contest from the seat of his pants. With less than a minute remaining, Gursoy topped the night off for the Rams, bagging his second of the game (and season) to send the Lions to the locker room dejected. After all was said and done, the Rams had outshot the Lions 32-24 and, by all accounts, dominated the game from the first shift. 

On Saturday at 4 p.m. the Rams will host the Lions at the Mattamy Athletic Centre for their final regular season game. A pre-game ceremony will honour the Rams graduating class, consisting of 14 players.