Nov 20, 2021 | Brad Mitchell | 61 views
(Post-Game 3) Guelph Continues to Show Positive Growth, Still Searching for 1st Win
Our Gryphons were back on the ice to play in their 3rd regular season game of the year vs Oakville Rangers.
After a challenging first team Tournament in which we started to see some positive growth on and off the ice with our boys, the Gryphons were back into the swing of things as they travelled to Oakville to take on the 3rd place Rangers for the first time this season. Guelph would be 3 players short for this game with Nathan, Ethan and Ostrander all out.
The Rangers were quick out of the gate forcing our Gryphons to regroup and fight to change the momentum in the first period. And what an entertaining period it was. The play was quick, lots of action in both ends of the ice and it didn't take long for Guelph to capitalize on the momentum shift, with 12:49 left in the first period, Talen Brown received a clearing pass from Mitchell and Brown fought through the Oakville D and beat the Oakville Tender with a nice little back hander. No one deserved that goal more than Brown who continues to be a physical force out there for our Gryphons including being a shot blocking machine! And with that goal, a goalless streak of 5 games was snapped and we have our 2nd goal scorer on the team!
Oakville snapped back quickly with 11:37 left in the first to knot the score up at 1 and with 1:57 left in the 1st, managed to take the lead from the Gryphons for the first time in the game.
More of the same high paced play in the 2nd with both goalies being tested multiple times and neither one blinking with the score remaining 2-1 in favor of the Hometown Rangers by the end of the 2nd. 2 Periods in the books and, not to be overlooked, ZERO penalty minutes handed out in this game with only the 3rd period to go.
As the Zamboni flooded the ice, we all waited to see what Gryphon's team would take the ice in the 3rd. A period that has seen our boys outscored considerably. Unfortunately, it would be Oakville that would score first in the 3rd period at the 12:29 mark. And while Guelph seemed far more driven and energetic to start the 3rd period, by the half way mark of the 3rd (and with Brown off the ice for repairs and the short bench starting to take it's toll), we started to see the boys stamina begin to tail off.
But on this night, our Gryphons would NOT give up and also did everything in their power to NOT put themselves behind the 8 ball with unnecessary penalties. This commitment to playing THEIR game paid off on the Guelph Powerplay and with 1:57 remaining as Byrnes buried Guelph's 2nd goal of the game (another unwanted streak broken) from Irwin and Durzi.
To say the final 2 minutes of this game was exciting would be an understatement. We witnessed what appeared to be an Oakville insurance goal on an empty Gryphon net, only to see that goal overturned as the Guelph net had popped lose (shout out to Durzi who was doing everything he could to play goalie during that furry of activity. Eventually the clock ended our Gryphon's comeback attempt. That said, this game was arguably the best all around effort by our Guelph Gryphons.
Guelph remains on their road show as they travel to Orangeville tonight which is the only remaining team Guelph has yet to play during the regular season (Despite having already played the Flyers in Exhibition and at the Tournament). See you at the game!
GO Gryphs GO!
Guelph Scoring:
1st - PPG-#12Brown(1) from #92Mitchell (1)
3rd - #88Byrnes(1) from #19Irwin(1) and #33Durzi(1)
Penalties:
3rd - 6:09, #7 Hurst (2:00 slashing)
Oakville Scoring:
1st - #11 from #4
1st - #11(2) from #20
3rd - #6
Penalties:
3rd - 6:57, #13 (2:00 Hooking)
3rd - 3:38, #3 (2:00 Hooking)