Apparently, Brett Gibson got everyone’s attention.

As he fumed over a poor performance after Friday night’s loss to last-place Laurier, the coach of the Queen’s Golden Gaels vowed lineup changes—“significant pulls,” as he put it—would be at the heart of his next attempt to snap his hockey team out of a six-game losing streak.

With three regulars excused from Saturday’s contest at the Memorial Centre, the Gaels responded favourably, with a 3-2 overtime win over the Waterloo Warriors, a team that came to Kingston on the business end of a nine-game Ontario University Athletics winning streak.

A goal by rookie Darcy Greenaway, who slapped a cross-crease pass from Corey Bureau past Waterloo goaltender Mike Morrison after just 32 seconds of overtime, gave the Gaels their first win since Nov. 28.

The goal, which came at the expense of Greenaway’s former Kingston Frontenacs teammate, was his fourth in three games and his team-best 12th of the year.

“It feels great,” Gibson said. “We made some adjustments by pulling some guys from the lineup. Some guys that haven't played in a long time came in and did everything I asked. It was fantastic.” 

Out of Saturday’s Queen’s lineup were regulars Harrison Hendrix, Blair Wentworth and Andrew Wiebe. In their place dressed Braden Mercier (for his second game of the year), Yannick Laflamme (for his sixth) and Ryan Bloom (for his tenth).

Gibson was tangibly rewarded by Mercier, who collected an assist, and by Laflamme, who scored an unassisted goal to open scoring in the game’s fourth minute.

Bureau gave Queen’s a 2-1 lead before the first period was over, converting a nice pass from Kelly Jackson, and the teams played a scoreless second period, one in which the visitors outshot the Gaels 15-10.

Prior to Saturday night the Warriors hadn’t lost since Nov. 8 in a streak that, its length aside, was rendered even more impressive from the fact the list of victims included nationally ranked Trois-Rivieres, Windsor, Carleton and McGill.

It was clear the Warriors weren’t ready for it to end, as Sam Caldwell scored early in the third period to tie the game. There was no scoring the rest of the way, even though Queen’s was given a power play with two and a half minutes remaining in regulation time.

Queen’s goaltender Kevin Bailie was superb in getting the best of Morrison, as Waterloo outshot the home team 36-33.

The Gaels resume play Friday night when they travel to face the No. 9-ranked McGill Redmen, who escaped the city Saturday night with a 4-3 win over the Royal Military College Paladins.

McGill’s Jonathan Brunelle scored his eighth goal of the year on a power play midway through the third period to break a 3-3 tie.

It would appear that though the Paladins remain winless after 20 games, they may have started to figure things out. Thursday in Sudbury, they dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to the Laurentian Voyageurs; Saturday at the Constantine Arena, they overcame a 3-0 deficit with three straight goals in the second period to climb back into a game against one of the top teams in the land.

RMC would seem to have solved a couple of its problems, scoring seven times in the last two games—they scored barely two goals per game through their first 13 contests—and finding ways to keep games close while they attempt to overcome their remaining chronic issue: opponents’ shots on goal.

Saturday, McGill tested beleaguered RMC goalkeeper Evan Deviller 57 times. It was the fifth time this year Deviller has faced 50 shots or more in a complete game; he’s faced fewer than 46 shots only once in those 12 contests. On his slackest night, in Windsor in October, Deviller saw ‘just’ 43 pucks.

Remarkably, though he’s 0-13, only five goalies in Canada have made more saves than Deviller has made this season.

Brett Pinder, who missed the first half of the season due to injury, scored twice just over three minutes apart for RMC Saturday night, while Eric Louis-Seize scored his team-best ninth goal to start the Paladins’ comeback.

Louis-Seize has now scored in three of his last four games, and he has 14 points in his last seven games.

The Paladins will host Ontario Tech Wednesday at 7 p.m. before travelling to West Point, N.Y., for the annual match Saturday with the U.S. Military Academy.