Sunday afternoon the Junior Gryphons returned to the ice for the second playoff game of the OMHA play-ins and skated away with a close 3-2 win over the visiting Flamborough-Dundas rep team. The game started in typical fashion for the Minor PeeWee's with the boys slow to get playing their game.
The first goal of the game came half-way through the first period when Cian Duffy kept the puck in at the Flam-Das blueline and fed it to Owen McNamee who cut across the slot and flipped a puck in to the top left corner past the the outstretched blockers of the goalie. However, only a minute later, Flam-Das struck back, when a defensive mix-up allowed a speedy forward to get away on a breakaway from almost centre-ice rip a wrist-shot past Max Heroux, who was seeing his first game action in almost a month.
In the second period the Gryphons started to pick up the pace and find their normal game. On a power-play in the first minute of the period, the Peyton Markwood kept a clearing pass in at the Flam-Das blue-line, forced his way down the wall with the puck, pushing through 3 defenders. When he finally got clear control of the puck in the corner he fired a hard pass across to the slot to Nate Taylor who corralled the puck and tapped it in to the open net.
The Gryphons would take a two-goal lead a few minutes later when on a penalty kill Milan Wilson would win a battle in the defensive zone along the wall and flip the puck to centre-ice where McNamee would pick up it up. Using his speed he flew down the right board, gaining an edge on the defenseman, and cut in hard toward the net at the faceoff dot causing the goalie to move to his right. McNamee quickly deked back and tapped the puck into the open net for the 3-1 lead.
Just when it looked like the momentum in the game had shifted and the Gyphons may pull away, Flam-Das struck back. Just a minute later, on nearly an identical play as their first goal, on a breakaway from nearly centre-ice, they made the score 3-2. That would be as close as the game would get.
The third period was all Gryphons as the boys started to play their typical aggressive forechecking game. Despite constant pressure they were unable to pad their lead and the game would end 3-2.
The Junior Gryphons sit alone in first spot in their play-off bracket with a 2-0 record and look to move to 3-0 when they return to the ice against West-Niagara on Saturday afternoon.