Gryphon hockey men start 2024 with shootout victory

TORONTO – The Guelph Gryphons put an end to a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 win in a shootout over the York Lions in their first OUA men’s hockey outing of 2024 Friday night at the Gryphon Centre.

Nolan Forster’s goal in the shootout gave the Gryphs the win. He was the third Gryphon shooter and second to score as Jacob Winterton, who scored both regulation-time goals for the hosts, scored on Guelph’s first shot in the shootout.

Thomas Lacombe, York’s third shooter, was the lone scorer for the Lions in the shootout.

The Gryphs had to come back from a 2-0 deficit early in the second period to post the victory.

Lucas Theriault opened the scoring with 12 seconds to go in the first period and Jacob Vreugdenhil scored at 4:56 of the second after all the officials got together to decide if the puck actually went in the net. It did.

Winterton cut the gap to a single goal with 1:23 to go in the middle frame and he forced a seven-minute overtime period with his other goal at 12:05 of the third. Anthony Tabak assisted on both of the Guelph goals while Duncan Penman also had an assist.

Cole Beamin, Lacombe and Keeton Oakley each had an assist for York.

The teams took 33 shots apiece and goalkeepers Tanner Wickware of the Gryphs and Carter Serhyenko of York each made 31 saves.

Neither team scored on its power play with the Lions having five power plays and the Gryphs having three.

One of the teams was going to end a losing streak in the game as the Lions entered 2024 having lost their final nine games of 2023, their last win coming Nov. 1 when they edged the Waterloo Warriors 3-1.

Guelph is sixth in the OUA West at 9-10-0 and York is ninth in the OUA East at 3-14-2.

The Gryphs are to play the division West Division-leading Brock Badgers (14-5-0) Saturday at 2 p.m. at Brock’s Canada Games arena.

• Guelph Sports Journal