Gryphon hockey men edge Laurier for first road win
WATERLOO – The Guelph Gryphons collected their first road win of the OUA men’s hockey season Thursday when they held on to edge the Laurier Golden Hawks 4-3 at Waterloo’s Sun Life Financial Arena.
The Gryphs had dropped their previous three road games as they’d lost to the Nipissing Lakers in North Bay in their season opener Sept. 23 and dropped games to the Concordia Stingers and McGill Redbirds in Montreal Oct. 27 and 28.
The Gryphs have won five of the six games they’ve played at the Gryphon Centre.
Thursday’s win also extended Guelph’s win streak to three games as they’d defeated the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks 3-2 and Windsor Lancers 4-2 at home last weekend.
Thursday, the Gryphs jumped ahead with a pair of goals 32 seconds apart before the game was six minutes old. They added two more goals in the second period and then held off a late rally by the hosts that saw the Golden Hawks score three times in the final seven minutes of the game, the final two goals being power-play markers.
Giordano Biondi, Hunter Brazier, Jacob Winterton and Luke Kutkevicius struck for a goal apiece for the Gryphs while Anthony Tabak had two assists and Ethan Doyle, Nathan Allensen, Duncan Penman, Tristan De Jong and Jonah De Simone had one each.
Scoring single goals for Laurier were Nick Giunta, Tyler Davis and Sam Rhodes while single assists went to Caleb Petrie, Mitchell Casey, Evan Benwell, Sullivan Sparkes and Bryce Kilbourne.
The Gryphs outshot Laurier 39-34 and went 1-for-6 on their power play as the Golden Hawks were assessed the first five penalties of game. Laurier went 2-for-3 on its power play.
Tanner Wickware had 31 saves for the Gryphs while Christian Propp had 35 for Laurier.
Guelph is third in the OUA West at 6-4-0 and trail the Brock Badgers (9-1-0) and Toronto Varsity Blues (8-3-0). Lakehead Thunderwolves are fourth at 5-4-1 and are followed by the Toronto Metropolitan Bold at 5-3-0, Windsor at 4-4-0, Laurier at 3-6-2, York Lions and Waterloo Warriors both at 3-7-0 and Western Mustangs at 1-8-0.
The Gryphs are to host TMU Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Gryphon Centre.
- Guelph Sports Journal