Feb 21, 2022 | Grant Thompson | 99 views
Feb 20 Guelph Gryphons at Owen Sound Jr. Attack
Slippery Roads, Slippery Game
Sometimes the simple things slip away in a game. Passes that aren’t crisp enough. Being in position to pop the pass up the boards out the defensive zone, or recognizing the streaking winger. Anticipating the cut-off out of the offensive zone or getting back to support a pinching blue-liner. Not controlling the puck on the penalty kill. All of these things added up to Owen Sound spending far too much time in the Guelph end in period 1 and 3 of this game, and on all Gryphon powerplays. Sergio made a tonne of saves, and his heart-rate, normally getting a break every 30-60 seconds with a d-zone clearance, must have been through the roof as he was squatting, lunging, diving, reaching and pushing off for at least 11 of 15 minutes of those 2 periods. The fans in the stands were out of breath just cheering his many saves.
Guelph started playing the way they’ve been playing in their most recent games through the second, and there were some highlights up ice to speak of as the Gryphons dominated it, at least until the powerplays late in the period. Ty jumped on a puck and broke out of our zone, threaded through 3 Attack players who knocked each other over trying to stop him (think 3 stooges), which gave him the room to cut around the final defender, sauce a quick pass across to net crashers Nolan S and Olin, and Olin smashed it in. 2-1 Guelph. There were a lot of good fights for the puck to keep it deep, or in at the blueline, and the puck rarely got back into Guelph’s zone. At about 5 minutes left in 2, Nolan B rifled a pass from the point to Will who whacked in Guelph’s second for a 2-2 tie. From that point, Guelph went on the powerplay, but tried the dump-in game, to which Owen Sound simply collected the puck and fired it down to Guelph’s end, for the most part. The Attack eventually scored on the PK to go into the 3rd up 3-2.
Guelph never really got back into the game, as the third period was largely a repeat of Guelph's first period inability to get the puck past the blue line, let alone out to centre. 7-2 final.
All that being said, hockey’s still a fun game to watch and to cheer on our kids in between the tougher plays. The drive home, however, was sometimes just as icy as the surface of the game, and less fun at times...
-PL