New look Gryphons attack with talons out!
A shakeup to the Gryphon forward lines energized them right from the start as they attacked Thunder possessions with smart, puck separating hits and pushed the puck up ice to challenge the Halton Hills goalie early. That being said, the Thunder did not take things lightly either, and were still able to get in the Guelph zone at times, including an early 2 on 1 that Benny played well, forcing the shooter to take a shot that Parker handled easily. Going down the other end, Benny had a smart pinch to keep the play in the Thunder end too. No goals for Guelph to end the first, but none for the Thunder either. 0-0.
Through the second, the Gryphons did a great job of keeping the puck towards the Halton end of the ice. Early on, Jason had a few nice moves, coming off the left boards to get to the net, but the Thunder goalie’s glove was hot on Jason’s shot. Great effort, though! Guelph continued throwing everything at the Thunder goalie, but he was not giving anything up, and Period 2 ended 0-0 as well.
Into the third, with Parker still handling everything in the Gryphon’s end, Olin put in some hard work behind the Thunder net and dug the puck out to put it in front, but it was just out of reach of Nolan S who was fighting off two defenders to try to reach it. A couple minutes later, David dropped low to the face-off circle and blasted a shot past the keeper, off his water-bottle and quickly out. The Ref blew the whistle and hesitantly called a goal, conferred with the linesman, and ultimately called it a goal. The Halton Hills coach had a reasonable discussion with the Official over the validity of the goal, but there’s little doubt it went in. This sparked the Thunder though, and they quickly came up the ice and capitalized on a rare mess in front of Guelph’s net for a goal. 1-1. Moments later, however, back in the Thunder zone, Cam drew three players towards the boards with some nice moves, which led to a series of quick shots and touches, ending with Max tipping it to Jason who buried Guelph’s second goal. 2-1 Gryphons. Milton got one back a few minutes later, off an unfortunate bounce at centre, which led to a breakaway. 2-2. Soon, on a breakout, Olin crossed the Halton blue line, made a smart pass across ice to Ty, and then raced to the net where Ty returned the pass through traffic, and Olin buried it. 3-2 Guelph. With time running low, the puck bounced out of Halton’s zone with a Thunder player in hot pursuit; Benny tracked him down and pushed him into the corner, then scooted out in front of Parker, arriving just in time to tip a pass away from the trailing player, spoiling a Thunder chance to tie it up. Olin continued to work hard in the last few minutes as the Thunder goalie was on the bench, getting three shots towards the net, including one on post, with time winding down and the Thunder trying to pressure with 6 men. Guelph’s pressure was greater and they easily held the Thunder out of our zone thanks to a lot of hard team work. An excellent bounce-back game for the Gryphons. Final 3-2.
-PL