The Minor PeeWee AE Gryphons had a busy start to the week with back-to-back wins on Sunday and Monday nights, running the Jr. Gryphons unbeaten streak to 11 in regular season and tournament play with 9 consecutive league wins.
Game one on Sunday night was at home against Flamborough-Dundas. The Junior Gryphons came out strong in the game dominating play from the drop of the puck in the first, including almost scoring on the first shift of the game. But the F-D goalie stood tall, turning away over a dozen shots in the period and keeping the game scoreless after the first
The second period was a different story, the Gryphons would find the score sheet early on when Cian Duffy kept a clearing play in at the blue-line, tapped a pass to Peyton Smith who would skate around the F-D defenders and get a shot off, Kenny Beynon fired home the rebound. Less than two minutes later Michael Kusiak kept another clearing pass from leaving the zone and fed Peyton Markwood along the left wall, who flipped the puck to a streaking Nate Taylor. Taylor held off a defender who was draped all over him, and placed a perfect shot above the goalie's right pad and below his blocker. That made the game 2-0. A little over two minutes later, Peyton Markwood would add his first goal of the game. Jackson Byard fought behind the net for the puck, passed it out to Duffy at the blue-line, his low hard shot couldn't be handled by the screened goalie, and Markwood hammered home the loose puck in front to make it 3-0.
In the third period the undisciplined Gryphons would have to fight off four penalties to secure the win. However, after taking a penalty early in the frame, Peyton Markwood would show his baseball skills, batting a knee-high pass from Byard into the wide open net at the ten-minute mark. Nate Taylor drew an assist on the play after carrying the puck into the F-D zone and fighting off a defender to get the puck low for Byard. Milan Wilson would cap off the scoring for the Gryphons on a goal-mouth scramble that drew assists from Duffy and Beynon.
The only goal that the Gryphons would give up would be with 9 seconds left in the game when a F-D forward would beat Max Heroux off a scrambled two-on-one rush and a tipped shot that would sneak under his glove. Heroux played great throughout the entire game when called upon.
The second game of the week came Monday night against Brampton. In one of the least favorable time-slots for a game given the time and traffic, the Gryphons traveled to Brampton to take on the 45er's and skate away with a tough 3-2 win.
The game was scoreless through one as both goalies made some outstanding saves and all the skaters battled in all areas of the ice. The close battling would continue into the second when Brampton scored the first goal of the game almost 5 minutes into the period on a two-on-one breakout. The Gryphons would respond roughly 5 minutes later when Peyton Smith received a pass from Kenny Beynon, stick handled through the 45er's defence for a partial break-away, faked moving to his backhand, stopped on a dime, and when the goalie slide by, he tucked it into the empty net on his forehand, while being dragged to the ice by the defense. Unfortunately that lead would last less than a minute as the 45er's would retake the lead off a scramble play off to the right of Max Heroux. However, the Gryphons would not stop and before the end of the period, Milan Wilson netted the tying goal with less than half a minute to play in the period off a scramble in front of the 45er's net. Conner Laskowski and Owen McNamee drew assists on the play.
The game would continue to go back and forth for another half period, with chances at each end of the ice. But halfway through the third Caleb Davison slid a pass to point-man Michael Kusiak who fired a high shot on net. The screened Brampton goalie was unable to handle the shot and Peyton Smith grabbed the puck and fired it into the top of the net for the go ahead and game winning goal.
The boys return to the ice on Saturday afternoon against Erin-Hillsburgh in their second-last regular season game.