WATERLOO, Ont. - Senior forward Andrew Fritsch scored the game-winning goal and added an assist to lead the unranked Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks men's hockey team to a 5-2 victory over the No.5 McGill Redmen on Saturday night at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex.

The result snapped McGill's win streak at seven and marked the second consecutive year that the Redmen stumbled against the Hawks, including s 4-3 setback in double overtime last year. The teams are now 13-13-1 lifetime against each other.

Tied at 2-2 through two periods, Fritsch, a native of Brantford, Ont., broke the deadlock only 88 seconds into the final stanza with his third goal of the season. He fired a quick wrist shot from the slot that beat McGill goalie Louis-Philip Guindon of St. Joseph du Lac, Que., on the glove-hand side to give Laurier a 3-2 lead.

Neil Aird of Ancaster, Ont., added an insurance marker at 13:46 and Will Cook of Port Stanley, Ont., registered an empty-netter at 19:11 to improve Laurier's record to 9-3-2, which ranks third-best in the OUA West, one point behind Guelph (10-3-1) and York (10-4-1).

Freshman Antoine Dufort-Plante of Montreal, and sophomore Guillaume Gauthier of Drummondville, Que., tallied their third and fifth goals, respectively, for the OUA East leading Redmen who lost just their third game of the season and tumbled to 13-3-0. McGill holds a three-point lead over second-place UQTR (10-2-3).

The Hawks actually trailed twice in the contest as they fell behind 1-0 and 2-1 in the opening period. However, Laurier didn't allow the OUA's leading offensive juggernaut to pull away as Brandon Robinson of Pickering, Ont., and Christian Mroczkowski of Kitchener, Ont., countered each time for the purple and gold.

One night after coming on in relief for the Golden Hawks, goaltender Colin Furlong of Cambridge, Ont., got the start and picked up his fourth win of the season as he stopped 28 shots. The performance leaves him ranked fifth in the conference in goals-against average at 2.17 and sixth in save percentage at .929.

Guindon took the loss for the Redmen, allowing four goals on 32 shots. His GAA slipped to 2.23 and save percentage now sits at .923.

Both teams failed to connect on the power-play, with McGill going 0-for-4 and Laurier 0-for-2. The Redmen PK unit has killed off 23 consecutive manpower situations and now ranks No.1 in the 20-team OUA with a lofty 89.5 per cent success rate.

The Hawks (9-3-2) will host their annual School Day Game on Nov. 30 against Waterloo (5-7-2). McGill will close their semester with home games against Laurentian (2-13-0) and Nipissing (5-7-3), on Dec. 1 and 2, respectively, at 7 p.m.

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2017-18 OUA MEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS
 

Rank	OUA West	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	Guelph	14	10	3	1	21	0.750	65	48	8-0-0	9-1-0	148
2	York	15	10	4	1	21	0.700	49	42	1-0-1	5-4-1	185
3	Laurier	14	9	3	2	20	0.714	48	34	1-0-0	6-2-2	140
4	Ryerson	14	9	4	1	19	0.679	56	46	1-0-1	6-3-1	158
5	Brock	14	6	5	3	15	0.536	40	39	2-0-0	6-2-2	150
6	Windsor	14	5	5	4	14	0.500	37	39	0-1-1	4-3-3	190
7	Lakehead	15	6	8	1	13	0.433	33	43	0-2-0	5-5-0	164
8	Waterloo	14	5	7	2	12	0.429	44	53	0-2-0	2-6-2	294
9	Western	14	4	8	2	10	0.357	47	58	1-0-1	3-5-2	108
10	Toronto	14	4	9	1	9	0.321	26	45	0-3-1	2-7-1	207
Rank	OUA East	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	STK	P10	PIM
1	McGill	16	13	3	0	26	0.813	65	36	0-1-0	8-2-0	239
2	UQTR	15	10	2	3	23	0.767	52	30	3-0-1	6-1-3	363
3	Concordia	14	10	2	2	22	0.786	56	35	2-0-1	7-2-1	247
4	Carleton	14	8	4	2	18	0.643	49	36	0-3-1	6-3-1	185
5	Ottawa	14	8	4	2	18	0.643	51	48	4-0-1	6-3-1	164
6	UOIT	14	8	5	1	17	0.607	39	42	6-0-0	6-3-1	195
7	Queen's	14	7	4	3	17	0.607	44	40	0-1-0	4-4-2	180
8	Nipissing	15	5	7	3	13	0.433	38	53	0-2-0	3-5-2	301
9	RMC	15	5	8	2	12	0.400	32	57	5-0-1	5-3-2	235
10	Laurentian	15	2	13	0	4	0.133	34	81	0-8-0	1-9-0	249