Dec 16, 2023 | Duncan Bates | 73 views
U15 Select Gryphons Finish with Silver in Lefroy
The U15 Select Gryphons travelled to Barrie to participate in the Lefroy Christmas Classic tournament over the weekend of December 8th through 10th to face off against some tough competition from the Ottawa area and Toronto.
Our opening game against the Cumberland Dukes was a closely matched game with a ton of back and forth action resulting in a tie. Goals by Howden, King and Lever kept us in the game and set the stage for an uphill battle to exit the round-robin format in a playoff position.
A night of varied rest brought forth the dominant Faustina Fury for an early morning matchup. In perhaps the most exciting game of the season, the Gryphons fought an incredibly tough battle against a disciplined, systems oriented team. The first period ended in a 1-1 tie with King getting the boys on the board and levelling the game before starting the second. Faustina came into the second period with a force and closed out the frame with a 3-1 lead setting the table for a fierce third period. Vanderwoerd brought us to within one before Faustina fought back to regain their two goal lead. With 2 minutes left in the game, the Gryphons pulled their goalie for an extra skater and Williams quickly banged in a rebound from a net front scramble. An icing allowed the gryphons to pull the goalie again with an O-Zone face-off and an extra attacker, Bailey pulled off the unbelievable and scored to tie the game with just over a minute left. A return to the face off dot and a scramble for the puck resulted in a break away for the Gryphons but was ended by a Faustina trip affording the team a penalty shot. With Bailey lined up at centre ice, in he went with the game on his stick and managed to close out his penalty shot with a goal and the win for the Gryphons. 3 goals in the final two minutes and edge of the seat action got us one step closer to a seat in the finals with a 5-4 finish.
Game 3 against the Nepean Raiders began with a tone setting goal by Parker as he out maneuvered a goalie challenge and found the back of the net. The goalie's challenge resulted in an injury to Nepean's last standing tender and ultimately lead to him leaving the game. Nepean opted to play the rest of the game with 6 skaters which at times, resulted in heavy offensive pressure but with an empty net at the other end, the Gryphons were able to maintain control of the game and finished with an 11-2 victory and a sure seat in the finals with a first place finish in the round-robin format.
The final game, held Sunday December 10, was a rematch against the Faustina Fury and the tone was set early by a team seeking revenge following Saturday's third period collapse. The first period saw fierce battles between the teams and a game ending, emotional injury to Bates. Faustina ended the first period with a 3-0 lead and set the tone moving into the second where they capitalized and built on their lead closing the frame up 5-0. The Gryphons didn't give up, they battled hard and kept the Fury to the outside for the third but were unable to catch up ending the finals with a 5-0 loss and walking away with a silver medal.
Your U15 Guelph Gryphons played through an amazing tournament, showed incredible heart and played with everything they had. It's the furthest this group has ever gone in a tournament and we should all be incredibly proud of how well they did.
Let's go Gryphons!!!