Three goals in the second period allowed the Royal Military College Paladins to get back into the hockey game, but they couldn’t sustain the comeback as they fell 9-4 to the Western Mustangs in an Ontario University Athletics hockey game Friday night in London.

Western, 14-3-1 and tied for first place in the West division, scored four times in the first 16 minutes of the game but RMC got on the scoreboard with 12 seconds remaining in the first period on a goal by Kyle Phillips, his team-best eighth of the season.

Down 5-1, Chris Smerek scored early in the second for the Paladins, who cut the gap to 6-4 when Alex Pym and Eric-Louis Seize scored goals a little more than three minutes apart late in the period. Stefan Salituro scored before the period ended, however, to restore a three-goal lead and the visiting Mustangs weren’t challenged after that.

Western outshot RMC 47-17, including 26-7 in the second period. The Mustangs capitalized on all three of their power plays and scored a shorthanded goal.

Seven different players scored for Western, with Salituro and Noah Schwartz each scoring twice.

RMC, 0-15-2, will seek its first win of the season Saturday in Guelph.

•

In Toronto Friday night, the Queen’s Golden Gaels dropped their fourth game in a row, 4-1 to the York Lions.

A shorthanded goal late in the first period by Shane Rover broke a 1-1 tie and sent the Lions into the second period with a 2-1 lead. York’s Dylan Smoskowitz scored the only two goals of the second period, his seventh and eighth of the year, and the teams played a scoreless third.

The Gaels, 8-9-1, outshot York 52-21, including 19-4 in the third period. Chris Perugini made a season-best 51 saves as the Lions improved to 7-10-1.

Andrew Wiebe’s seventh goal of the year was the only goal for Queen’s, who scored just once for the third time in the last four games.

The Gaels, who were 0-for-8 on the power play, will play the Brock Badgers Saturday night in St. Catharines.