Jan 26, 2020 | Tim Davison | 373 views
Gryphons Fly Through Week to Move to 4-0 in OMHA Play-ins
This past week the Minor PeeWee Junior Gyphon AE squad had two more games in their round-robin OMHA play-ins.
The first game was Monday at home against a first time opponent in the visiting West Niagara Flying Aces. The only time the Gryphons had seen the Flying Aces was in the Nations Cup when both teams played for Canada in their tournament victory. Going against new teams is always a fun but tough experience as the squad doesn't know what to expect. The result was a slow, cautious start for both teams, especially for the Gryphons, who are habitual slow starters.
In the first period, the Flying Aces controlled a good part of the play and Lucas Jones made several terrific saves to keep the Gryphons in the game while the skaters found their legs. The only goal of the period was to the visitors who scored half-way through the frame.
The second period saw the Gryphons play their typical aggressive forechecking game. While the ice started to shift in their favour, they couldn't break through on the score sheet.
That changed in the third period, and quickly. Three minutes into the period the Gryphons broke up a pass in their zone and slide the puck down the ice. Peyton Smith chased the puck down and pressured the defensemen from the Flying Aces, forcing the elimination of a potential icing. The defense coughed up the puck to Caleb Davison who was sealing off the wall. After picking up the puck, he continued into the corner and fed a perfect pass to the trailing Kenny Beynon who fired a wrist shot past the goalie to tie the game at one.
As has happed so often with this team, the next shift scored again. Off the centre-ice faceoff the Wilson line got the puck deep behind the Flyers net. The first clearing attempt was blocked by Micheal Kusiak who fired the puck back behind the net to Owen McNamee. McNamee got control of the puck and fed it to the high slot to Milan Wilson who fired a quick wrist shot. Wilson's shot was stopped by the Flyer goalie, but the puck skipped out to the right side of the net and Conner Laskowski hammered it home for the 2-1 lead.
The final goal of the game came off the stick of Peyton Markwood showing off some of the skills he developed in the backyard rink. With the Flying Aces pushing for the equalizer with six minutes left in the game, they made a risky cross ice pass through the middle of the rink. Peyton Smith stepped in and broke up the pass, knocking it forward to Markwood who was just leaving the opponents’ zone. Markwood quickly reversed directions and broke in behind the Flying Aces defense on a breakaway, calmly faked to his left, drew the puck back and away from the goalie who was going for a pokecheck, and slid it in on his backhand behind the outstretched goalies' left pad.
Despite late penalty trouble, including killing off a 6-3 man advantage with the Flying Aces goalie pulled, the Gryphons held on for the solid 3-1 win.
The second game of the week was against local rival Flamborough-Dundas on Saturday afternoon. This game was far less dramatic as the Gryphons took the lead early and never trailed. However, the boys kept it interesting by taking lots of penalties and giving their opponents lots of opportunities to get back in the game.
Unlike so many games this year, the Junior Gryphons got off to a quick start. Off the opening draw, the Gryphons got the puck deep in the Flam-Das end. After a short corner battle, Owen McNamee came out from behind the net and fired a shot on net. The shot was stopped, but Conner Laskowski outworked the defense, got his stick on the puck and slid the puck home for the 1-0 lead.
The Gryphons would hold onto that 1-0 lead until the nine minute mark of the second period. Off a faceoff in the defensive zone, the Flam-Das shot on net was blocked and Vid Peteranac picked up the puck and fired a pass to Peyton Smith who was breaking out of the zone. Smith raced down the right boards and around the defense and fired a shot from the face-off dot and beat the goalie with a perfectly placed shot under the blocker and above the pad for the 2-0 lead.
Five minutes later Flam-Das would strike back on the powerplay, but that was a close as they would get. Kenny Beynon would add to the lead with buzzer beater goal at the end of the period. From a faceoff with 5 seconds left in the frame there was a scramble along the boards and Flam-Das got control and tried to ice the puck to kill the period. The clearing pass was stopped by Peteranac at the blueline and shoveled back into the slot. Beynon lifted the stick of the defensemen, grabbed the puck, circled back to the net and deked the goalie with a quick head fake and slid the puck into the open net with .1 seconds left on the clock to make the score 3-1.
The third period started well for the Junior Gryphons with two goals in the first 3 minutes of the frame. The first was off the stick of Peyton Markwood off a feed from Nate Taylor who won a corner battle and allowed Markwood to walk out and roof the puck short side over the goalies blocker. The second was from Peyton Smith who hammered home a rebound off a point shot from Micheal Kusiak. However, from that point on, Guelph would be unable to build on this 5-1 lead as they ran into major penalty problems. In total, the undisciplined Gryphons took five 2 minute penalties plus a 10 minute unsportsmanlike like for a total of 20 minutes in penalties in the last 10 minutes of the period. However, backed by excellent goaltending from Max Heroux in net and solid penalty killing from all players, Flam-Das never scored in the frame making the final 5-1.
The team returns to the ice looking to put a lock on first place in their OMHA play-in pool when they take to the ice against the Orangeville Flyers on Monday night at home at West End.