Dec 27, 2016 | Joe Harris | 520 views
MINOR ATOM AAA REPORT
The Minor Atom AAA Gryphs played 2 great games against the 2nd place Southern Tier Admirals before the Holiday break.
On Monday December 19th the Gryphs played host to the Admirals and despite a valiant 3rd period effort the boys came up short 4-2. Southern Tier jumped out to the early lead in the 1st but Landon Mitchell answered back with a sweet shot on a nice lead pass from Nolan Chabot to even the score in the 1st period 1-1. After a scoreless 2nd period, the Admirals answered with 2 quick goals at the beginning of the 3rd to re-gain the lead.
With 2:24 remaining, Noah Milne drifted a high shot from the point past the unsuspecting Admirals goalie to close the gap to 3-2. Alex Rossi got the assist.
The Admirals rallied though, and with under a minute remaining they squeezed another goal past the Gryphs netminder, Alessandro Gruosso. Final score was 4-2. Alessandro made several saves in the contest, stopping 23 of the Admiral's 27 shots.
On Thursday December 22, the Gryphs travelled to Welland to visit the Admirals. In this rematch the Gryphs struck first on a hard-nosed effort by the line of Briggs, Savery, Johnson and the D pairing of Piccone and Milne just over 1 minute into the game. Oscar Johnson potted the biscuit past the Admirals tender on a crease scramble to give the Gryphs the early 1-0 lead.
Despite some excellent team defense and stellar goaltending in the first 2 periods the Gryphs found themselves down 3-1 early in the 3rd period. Once again, the Gryphs added pressure to the Admirals in the 3rd, this time yielding positive results. Sam Black scored on the PP, with assists from Trenton Harris and Evan VanEykeren. Then, on a sweet end-to-end rush and cross-ice saucer by Sam Savery, Oscar Johnson buried his 2nd of the night to tie the contest 3-3. The Gryphs killed-off a late penalty to preserve the tie and leave town with a well-earned 3-3 final. Kurtis Abbey foiled the host team on 29 of 32 shots against.
Next action for the team is December 30 to January 1 in the Ottawa Bell Capital Cup where the Gryphs will battle teams from Eastern Ontario.
Happy Holidays to all players, coaches, friends and families of the Minor Atom AAA Gryphs.