GUELPH, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons' distributed offence led to their 6-1 defeat over the Western Mustangs Saturday night at the Gryphon Centre Arena.
Western's lone goal was scored by Stephen Desrocher. Guelph's offence was provided by Tryg Strand, Ryan Valentini, Connor Bramwell, Marc Stevens, and Mikkel Aagaard, who scored twice.
The Gryphons faced elimination tonight, and their hunger for a win showed in the final score.
With seven minutes left in the first frame, Valentini shot in front of traffic, and Aagard deflected his puck past Mustang goaltender Luke Peressini to get Guelph on the board.
Thirty seconds later, the Gryphons received a kneeing penalty, giving Western a chance to respond. However, the Mustangs could not capitalize on their one player advantage because of Guelph's tight penalty kill.
Both teams played aggressive defence in the one-goal period to protect their goalies, leading to a final shot count of 9-2 for the Gryphons after the first 20 minutes expired.
Western fought off Guelph during their penalty kill 11 minutes into the second period. After his time in the box, Kolten Olynek charged into the offensive end. Spenser Cobbold fired the puck down to his teammate, but the pass went wide, and Olynek could not rush the net.
With six minutes left, Strand got the puck from Reilley O'Connor and walked across the crease to net the Gryphons' insurance marker on Peressini's glove hand side.
Three minutes later, Guelph marked their third of the night. Aagaard's shot missed the net and bounced off the boards, but Valentini picked the puck up and threw it behind Peressini. The Gryphons ended the second frame with 14 shots to Western's four and a score of 3-0.
Five minutes into the final frame, Scott Simmonds passed across a Western defender to Bramwell, who fired it to the back of the net. Ten seconds later, Aagard scored once again with help from Valentini and Cody Thompson to mark Guelph's fifth goal of the night. Peressini was pulled, and David Ovsjannikov took his place in net.
The Mustangs finally managed to crack the Gryphons' penalty kill unit after struggling to net a power play marker against them all series. Desrocher fired a low one-timer to beat Masters and bring the score to 5-1 nine minutes in.
With six minutes left, Stevens scored on the power play unassisted, netting the last goal of the night. Although outshooting Guelph 12-7 in the third, Western could only secure the one goal, and the Gryphons were awarded a 6-1 victory.
Western and Guelph are tied in the OUA West final with one win apiece. They will go head-to-head tomorrow at 7:00pm in London to settle the score and decide who will move forward to the Queen's Cup and the University Cup national championship. Fans can catch the action live at OUA.tv
