Mar 17, 2018 | Bruce Schlitt | 794 views
Minor Atom AE Drop 2-1 Decision in Game 1 Of OMHA Finals
The Guelph Gryphon Minor Atom AE's boarded the Gryphon bus and headed to Barrie on Saturday afternoon for Game 1 of the OMHA Finals. In a highly entertaining match, the Gryphons worked hard but came out on the wrong side of a 2-1 score.
Barrie got on the board early with an odd goal from outside the blueline just 1:53 into the contest. The goal seemed to get all the nerves out for the Gryphons and they settled in to play their hard checking, aggressive style of play that has been so successful thus far in the 2018 playoffs. The 1-0 Barrie lead held up heading into the first intermission.
The Gryphons continued with their hard work in the second. Their aggressive play led to three penalties to kill off, including a 5 on 3 situation for 1:23, but the Gryphons penalty killers were equal to the task and denied the Colts any offensive chances. The score stayed 1-0 after two periods of play.
As the third period wound down, dogged forechecking by Adrian Tersigni led to a Gryphon powerplay as Barrie was forced to haul down Tersigni in the Barrie zone. Just 9 seconds into the powerplay, Liam Bendo attempted a wrap around but the puck instead ended up on the stick of Peyton Markwood and Markwood tapped the puck into the open net to tie the score with 6:47 left in the contest. As overtime looped large, Barrie forced a turnover and broke down to score with just 1:44 remaining in the contest. Guelph poured on the pressure but was unable to score the equalizer and Barrie skated off with a 2-1 victory and a 1-0 series lead in the best of five final series.
Maxwell Heroux was outstanding between the pipes for the Gryphons depite the loss.
The Gryphons return to action on Sunday evening when they host the Colts for Game 2 at 5:30 at WERC. Come out to cheer on the Gryphs!