An emotional rollercoaster.
Unlike Thursday’s game in Burlington, this game was dominated by CW’s press up the … never mind. This game was dominated by Parker’s athleticism. CW pushed the puck up the ice for two and a half periods while the Gryphons struggled to get it out of their zone, let alone past centre. Parker was there to answer virtually all challenges. The first CW goal only came from a lack of an interference call in front of the net which left David on the ice out of the play and CW with an extra man free to pop it in.
While the second period still saw Parker having to make far too many saves, it also saw the Gryphons take the lead. The Gryphons got a rare face-off to the right of the Fusion keeper. Nolan S. won the face-off back, Olin pushed across from the left to pick it up and fired a goal top shelf. 1-0. A few minutes later, CW got a breakaway chance - very rare for Guelph to give up one of those - but Parker was up to the task, turning it away. A long delayed penalty resulted in multiple chances for CW, then that penalty turned into 2 penalties, as the refs were reminded to reflect on their difficulties in calling this game. Again, Parker played out of his mind through 4+ minutes of penalty and delayed penalty. The Gryphons did help out this time, firing the puck up-ice over and over again, with Seba hitting every white jersey in the Gryphs zone, and Will and Cam loading on the pressure up-ice on the clearances. During a break from Gryphon penalties, Jesse danced the puck up the left side and fired it at the goalie’s far pad. With Dad yelling “Go to the NET!,” Gareth drove to the net, and buried the rebound top shelf. 2-1 Guelph. Assist Jesse and Dad. At the end of 2, the Fusion had to be wondering how they were down.
A penalty kill in the third was again well defended by Guelph, but eventually a rocket from the point was screened and tied the game 2-2. Shortly after the tying goal, the Referees… well, if you want to know, just ask anyone, but put in earplugs… We just hope Jason is better soon. The 3rd ended with the game tied 2-2 and Parker was leading the Gryphs into a 10 minute, sudden death overtime.
Overtime was a Guelph dominated affair, with most of the action being in the CW end for a change. Noah was hustling hard on the right point, keeping puck after puck in, and firing them on net to create a few mad scrambles which fell just shy of getting buried for the win. Late into OT, Olin grabbed the puck at Guelph’s right blueline and unleashed Ty up on CW’s left blue line, where he fought through a few players and just couldn’t bury the puck… but moments later… Olin stole the puck at Gryphons right blue line, and this time added some spicy sauce to the same pass to Ty on the Fusion’s left blue line. Ty fought through, like 7 Fusion players, drove to the net and fired a heater that was so hard it burned its way between the keeper’s elbow and ribs for the HUUUUGE Gryphon OT playoff win (for #22), 3-2!!!!!!
-PL