Queen’s Golden Gaels moved two points closer to fifth place Saturday night as they defeated the Laurentian Voyageurs 4-1 in an Ontario University Athletics hockey game in Sudbury.

The win, the Gaels’ third in their last four games, lifted Queen’s within striking distance of fifth place, two points behind Nipissing, and within striking distance of fourth place and home-ice advantage in the first round of playoffs, a position currently held by Laurentian, four points distant.

Queen’s, 11-12-1, has two games remaining in its regular schedule, and now holds the advantage over the Voyageurs if the teams should end the season tied. With the loss, Laurentian, loser of three of its last four, slipped to 12-9-3.

Andrew Wiebe scored the only goal of the first period for Queen’s, and Eric Ming’s goal with 25 seconds left in the second period sent the Gaels into the final 20 minutes with a 2-0 lead.

After an unassisted goal by fifth-year senior Kelly Jackson gave the Gaels a three-goal cushion—and the advantage in the year-end tie-breaker—Nicolas Dionne scored for Laurentian with less than to two minutes to play.

It was actually an empty-net goal by Wiebe that gave Queen’s the 5-4 edge in total goals in the two games between the teams this year, both of which ended in a victory for the visiting team. It was Wiebe's 10th goal of the season, and his third in the last two games after a drought in which he scored just once in nine outings.

Kevin Bailie posted the goaltending win, turning aside 39 shots as the Voyageurs outshot Queen’s 40-29.

Meanwhile, at the Constantine Arena, the Ryerson Rams were handing the winless Royal Military College Paladins their 23rd consecutive defeat, 5-2.

Ryerson, 13-11-1 and the fourth-place team in the West division, scored twice in each of the first two periods and led 4-0 when Frederic Thouin scored his third goal of the year for RMC with 13 seconds left in the second period.

Instead of getting a boost from the goal, the Paladins instead took two penalties in the first three minutes of the third period and Ryerson’s Andreas Tsogkas scored a power-play goal to restore the four-goal lead.

Defenceman Marcus Quinlin scored RMC’s final goal.

Domenic Alberga scored twice for the Rams, his team-best 15th and 16th goals of the year, as Ryerson outshot the home team 49-35.

Queen’s and RMC will resume play Thursday at 7:30 p.m., when they meet in the annual 29th annual Carr-Harris Cup game at the K-Rock Centre.