Nov 04, 2019 | Tim Davison | 257 views
Minor PeeWee AE Battle to a 1-1 Weekend Record
Over the weekend the Gryphons took to the ice for games on both Saturday and Sunday nights. The first game was a rematch against league leading Halton Hills Thunder who they beat the weekend before, and the second was their first of the year against the Caledon Hawks.
The Saturday night contest in Acton was a repeat of the score in the first game between the Gryphons and the Thunder earlier in the week. Unfortunately for Guelph, the score was flipped and they skated to a 2-1 loss.
The game started similar to the first match of the year between the two squads with Guelph applying heavy pressure on the Halton defense. All the pressure paid off at just over 8 minutes in the first period when Michael Kusiak blasted a shot from the point through a screened Thunder goalie. Cian Duffy drew an assist on the opening goal.
Unfortunately that was all the Gryphons could muster on offense for the game. The contest went back and forth, with each team creating outstanding scoring opportunities over the twenty minutes of action. But both goalies made save after save, including on several break-aways and two-on-ones. The score remained 1-0 until until early in the third period when Halton scored the tying goal. The game looked like it may end tied, but with only 40 seconds remaining, Halton scored on a goal mouth scramble to take the lead and the win.
The Gryphons returned to the ice on Sunday night, this time for their first match-up against the Caledon Hawks, and skated away with a 5-1 win.
Kenny Beynon opened the scoring just under 2 minutes into the game when he jammed home a rebound off a point shot from Chace Roffel. Nate Taylor also drew an assist on the play after feeding the point for the shot. With just over 2 minutes left in the first, Beynon added his second of the contest, after stripping a Caledon defenseman of the puck, streaking down the left wing and ripping a low wrist-shot through the five-hole of the goalie.
The only scoring in the second period was with seven seconds left in the period when the Gryphons got caught on a bad line change, and a Caledon forward streaked in on a breakaway and deposited the puck in the top corner of the net.
The third period was the best period for the Gryphons as they started to play the game with speed and constant aggressive pressure. With the shots heavily in favour of Guelph, the Gryphons pulled away with three consecutive goals in the period.
Peyton Smith started off the scoring banging home a rebound off a shot from Caleb Davison at 14:43. After that the Caledon goalie once again shut the door for over ten minutes of action, turning away shot after shot from the Gryphons. He finally cracked with three and a half minutes left in the game when Josh Eikelboom flipped a shot over his outstretched left pad. It all started with a great passing play, cycling the puck down-low behind the Hawks net, when Owen McNamee flipped the puck out front, and after being denied on with his first shot, Eikelboom netted his first goal for the AE team in only his second game. The scoring came to a close 30 seconds later when Peyton Smith cycled behind the Caledon net, passed back to the open defense and Vid Peteranic blasted a low shot that beat the heavily screened goalie.
The team's next game action is Wednesday night at home against Oakville.