Mar 04, 2020 | Tim Davison | 919 views
Amazing Season Ends at OMHA Semi-Finals
The Minor PeeWee AE squad faced their toughest opponents of the year in the OMHA Semi-Finals, the Tri-County leaders Milton White. Not only had Milton White dominated league play, losing only 3 times all season, Guelph had knocked Milton out of the OMHA playoffs each of the past two years, and they were looking to return the favour.
The first game took place on Sunday afternoon in Milton and from the drop of the puck the Junior Gryphons came ready to play. Throughout the game, the boys had the team from Milton pinned in their zone, creating scoring chance after scoring chance, but they could not get a puck behind the goalie. This trend continued throughout the game as Guelph dominated play for the majority of the time but couldn't get on the board. Despite the strong play, the only scoring of the game was came partway through the second period when Milton tallied on a three on two odd man rush. They would win the game 1-0 to take the series lead.
Game two was in Guelph the following Saturday, and the unlike the first game, the team came out flat. Just 18 seconds into the game Milton scored off a fluke bounce off the end-boards. Then, off a defensive breakdown, scored again just under 5 minutes to play in the first period. The second period was scoreless in a fairly even back and forth session. The third period started poorly for the Gryphons when Milton stretched their lead to 3-0 at three and a half minutes into the frame. The Gryphons though showed they were not going to go quietly and finally woke up to play some of their best hockey of the series in the final five minutes. Peyton Smith got the Gryphons on the board first on a breakaway from a fantastic stretch pass from Owen McNamee. McNamee hit Smith with a pass from the left faceoff dot in the defensive zone as he stepped on the ice from the bench on the right side. Smith streaked in, made a small deke and slid the puck backhand behind the goalie.
Thee minutes later Milan Wilson scored on the power play to make the score 3-2. Off the draw in the Milton zone, Wilson won, slid the puck over to Conner Laskowski, who took a shot which went behind the net and around the boards. Wilson raced across to the far boards, grabbed the puck and fired a hard shot on net, and with Caleb Davison providing the screen in front to disturb the defense and goalie, the puck found the back of the net. Unfortunately for the Gryphons the come-back stalled there and the game ended 3-2 for Milton.
The third game of the series was on Tuesday in Milton with the Gryphons looking to stave off elimination and Milton looking to book their first trip to the OMHA finals. Unfortunately it would not be the Gryphons night as Milton skated away with a well deserved 6-1 win. The only goal of the night for the Gryphons came off a defensive zone face off, which resulted in a scramble along the left boards with Peter Schlitt, Milan Wilson and Conner Laskowski took on four Milton players. After a short battle, Wilson got control of the puck and flipped it ahead to Laskowski in the neutral zone, who raced in and fired a hard wrist shot low glove-side. While that tied the score at 1's, that would be as close as the Gryphons would get in the game.
While the boys were disappointed with the outcome of the series, the season has been a huge success for the team. With just a post-season tournament to go, the team has compiled a 41-15-1 record (72% win percentage) through the regular season, tournaments, and play-offs. In their 3 tournaments they won 2 and lost in the semi-finals in the third. And for the third consecutive year (for most of the team), made it to at least the OMHA semi-finals, a feat not matched by any team in Guelph or any-team they played against over this stretch.
Well done boys, good luck in the post-season tournament in April!