Gryphon hockey men come back to top Queen’s Gaels

GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons recovered from a three-goal deficit to edge the Queen’s Gaels 7-6 in OUA men’s hockey play Saturday night at the Gryphon Centre.

The Gaels led 3-0 at the end of the first period before the Gryphs came back for a 4-3 lead at the end of the second.

Queen’s tied it early in the third before the Gryphs added another three-goal outburst to lead by three with 7:10 to go. Queen’s closed the gap to a single goal with 23 seconds to go.

Nolan Forster had two goals for the Gryphs while single goals were netted by Luke Kutkevicius, Nolan DeGurse, Anthony Tabak, Liam Ham and Giordano Biondi. Tristan De Jong and Isaac Enright had two assists while single assists were recorded by DeGurse, Kutkevicius, Tabak, Hunter Brazier, Jacob Winterton, Forster, Duncan Penman and Ham.

Alex Robert had two goals and two assists for Queen’s while Nolan Hutcheson also scored twice. Derek Hamilton and Jonathan Yantsis added a goal apiece while Dharan Cap, Cameron Tolnai, Hayden Fowler, Lucas Peric, Hutcheson, Owen Lalonde, Michael Renwick and Daniel Michaud each had single assists.

The Gryphs were outshot 41-33, but went 4-for-5 on their power play while Queen’s went 2-for-3.

Tanner Wickware had 35 saves for the locals while Anthony Popovich and Aidan Spooner combined for 26 saves for Queen’s. Popovich had 19 saves in 32:10 and Spooner had seven saves in 27:20.

Guelph is 3-2-0 and Queen’s is 4-2-0.

The Gryphs are to play a pair of games in Montreal next weekend as they’re to play the Concordia Stingers (5-1-0) Friday at 7 p.m. and McGill Redbirds (1-2-1) Saturday at 7 p.m.

• Guelph Sports Journal