It's difficult to measure the impact of one specific game on a whole season, especially when that season is only six games old. But if the Waterloo Warriors go on to great feats in 2016-17, they may well look back on Friday night's victory over the Queen's Gaels as a massive turning point.

Captain Riley Sonnenburg (Cambridge) set the pace with a shorthanded goal, and Zac Coulter (Owen Sound) potted the eventual game-winner in the second period as the Warriors halted a three-game skid with a 5-2 victory over the Gaels at the Kingston Memorial Centre.

Sonnenburg and Coulter added an assist apiece for two-point nights, and Daniel Perigo (Truro) also registered a goal and an assist for the Warriors. Rookies Nick Halagian (St. Catharines) and Michael Morgan (Scarborough) each notched their first career USports goal when they added a pair of emyty-net goals to help improve Waterloo's record to 2-2-2 on the season. Waterloo goaltender Mike Morrison (Hamilton) was outstanding, making 28 saves in the victory.

Meanwhile, the host Gaels fell to 4-2-1, and saw a three-game winning streak snapped. Queen's got goals from Graeme Brown and Eric Ming, while goaltender Kevin Bailie turned aside 22 shots in the loss.

Sonnenburg got the Warriors started in the first with a beautiful shorthanded breakaway tally, in which he opened up Bailie and slid a backhander through the wickets of the Queen's goaltender. The Warriors then doubled their lead just shy of 16 minutes into the game, when Matt Amadio (Sault Ste. Marie) slid a gorgeous pass to Perigo in the high slot, who made no mistake in giving Waterloo a 2-0 lead after one period.

The Gaels cut the Waterloo lead in half midway through the second when Brown's seeing-eye shot from the point hit some traffic in front of Morrison and bounced across the line behind him. But the narrowed margin was short-lived – Just 32 seconds later, Michael Siddall (St. Mary's) found Coulter down low, who beat Bailie to the glove side to make it 3-1 for the visitors after 40 minutes.

Morrison was the story of the third period, standing tall through a number of Gaels chances. Ming squeezed home a shot with just under three minutes to play to make it 3-2, setting up a white-knuckle finish with the Gaels net empty. But with 1:01 remaining, Perigo cleared the defensive zone and found Halagian in the neutral zone, who floated a perfect wrister from just over the red line to restore the two-goal advantage. Bailie was pulled again after the fourth Waterloo goal, but Morgan found the yawning cage just 15 seconds later to round out the scoring.    

The Warriors will now look to make it a perfect weekend against OUA East powerhouses, as they'll take on the division's top team, the UOIT Ridgebacks, on Saturday afternoon, October 29. Puck drop is scheduled for 3:30pm from the Campus Ice Centre in Oshawa, and streaming live on oua.tv.