Early worry… late confidence. And another COLD night!
The first goal in this game came from a hard working 45s player who also benefited from some luck as he fought his way up ice with Noah doing everything he could to stop him - a lucky flick (and some crazy determination) got the puck in. Guelph came back a few minutes later as Noah came back into our zone, collected the puck, put it up the boards to Ty, who skated it into the Brampton zone, made a nice cross ice pass to Nolan S who made no mistake getting it behind the keeper. 1-1.
Early in the second, Jason, Seba and Cam were fighting hard around the net, tiring out the BramptoParn line, got one out to David, who stepped in to a shot that was stopped, and it popped out to Noah with the same shot on the other side, but the Brampton keeper was up for that one too! A few minutes later, the Gryphs were working hard on the penalty kill, keeping the puck from bothering Sergio; the puck was dumped behind the Brampton net, only to have Jesse hunt it down, skate it around to keep it in their zone, got it to Ty who buried his own rebound. 2-1 Guelph. Again, a few minutes later, Nolan B hustled hard to keep the puck in, fired it just left of the net, it comes out to Nolan S who gets his second of the game, 3-1 Guelph. Gareth came off the bench, fired up after that goal, fighting for pucks on the boards, beat 2 players moving up the ice, and fired a beauty, but the keeper was just able to turn it away. On a powerplay, shortly after, Max and Evan were warming up for a tennis match along the blueline for a while before Max turned and laid a forehand smash into the top corner of the net. 4-1 Guelph. Unfortunately the 45s got one back before the period ended. 4-2.
Early in the third, Will and Seba ran a beautiful 1-2 combo of a penalty kill deep in the Brampton zone, to kill off most the penalty, and when Brampton finally got it down to Guelph’s end for a shot, Parker shut it down with a hard kick-save, sending the puck out to the blueline. At about 7 minutes into the 3rd, Ty passed across Brampton’s net to Gareth who had an easy knock in for the 5-2 lead. Parker made the pressure Brampton built in the last few minutes of the game look easy to handle, as he did most of the plays through the rest of the night; he had to make a few scramble saves through the game, but was mostly just positionally sound in backstopping the Gryphons to another big W on the road.
Thanks to call-up, Malin.
-PL