Box Score The Nipissing Lakers men's hockey team was looking to make an early regular season debut count as they hit the ice Saturday night as part of Nipissing University Homecoming.

The Lakers welcomed the Guelph Gryphons to Memorial Gardens for a game that was bumped up on the schedule.

The Lakers scored a goal in the first and one in the third to power their way to a 2-1 win to begin the campaign.

In the opening period, the Lakers and Gryphons came out hitting, but were unable to find the back of the net despite a few chances at both ends.

The Lakers held a 10-9 shot advantage through 20 minutes.

After a big penalty kill, Nipissing scored the season's first goal as newcomer Reilly Mayne was in a perfect position for a perfect deflection of Matthieu Franche's point shot.

The goal came on a power play with 11:55 left in the middle frame.

The Lakers held on to the lead until the final 30 seconds of the period when the Gryphons potted a power play marker to tie the game.

Thanks to the late Guelph goal, the teams headed to the second intermission tied 1-1, with the Lakers outshooting the Gryphons 20-18.

It took almost 15 minutes of the third period for the teams to find the back of the net again.

Michael Palandra snapped a shot from the point that made its way through traffic and into the net.

The power play tally came with just over five minutes to go in the period and was assisted by Elvis Slack picked up the lone helper on the go-ahead goal.

Zach Roy was between the pipes for the Lakers and finished with 27 saves, while Nipissing fired 28 shots of their own at the Gryphons net.

The Lakers will now take a short break from the regular season to head back into exhibition action, due to scheduling changes and take on Carleton on Thursday and Waterloo on Saturday.