Gryphon men’s play-in game hopes crushed by Western
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons saw their OUA men’s hockey season come to an end Thursday at the Gryphon Centre when they were downed 9-5 by the Western Mustangs.
The Gryphs needed a win in either regulation time or overtime in their Aggies Night game to keep their hopes of participating in the West Division’s playoff play-in game. The Mustangs were already out of the playoff race.
Liam Ham’s goal at 6:40 of the second period put Guelph up 2-1, but things fell apart for the hosts after that as they yielded five goals later in the period including four in a span of 3:44 to lead 6-2 at the end of the period.
Both teams scored three times in the third, the Gryphs two power-play goals and Western getting two empty-netters as the locals pulled the goaltender pretty early in their attempt to catch up.
The Gryphs received single goals from Anthony Tabak, Liam Ham, Luke Kutkevicius, Griffin Wilson and Nolan DeGurse. Jacob Winterton had three assists while Ham and Kutkevicius had two apiece. Single assists went to Tabak, Jaxon Camp, Wilson, DeGurse and Nathan Allensen.
Brett Willits, Jake Gravelle and Shane Bulitka each had two goals for Western while singletons were added by Zach Power, Owen Saye and Andrew Bruder. Eric Van Impe set up three of the goals while Power and Reed Morison each had two assists and Saye, Jack Tucker, Jack Sander, Bulitka, Jacob Santerre, Noah Danielson, Jacob Dietz and Josh Leblanc each had one.
The Gryphs outshot Western 37-27 and went 2-for-4 on their power play while Western was scoreless on two power plays.
Tanner Wickware had nine saves in the first two periods for the Gryphs while Brendan Cregan had nine saves in the third. Dylan Myskiw had 32 saves for Western.
The game attracted a record Aggies Night crowd of 1,250.
Brock Badgers lead the OUA West at 21-6-0 (W-L-OTL) and are followed by the Toronto Metropolitan Bold at 19-7-1, Toronto Varsity Blues at 16-10-1, Windsor Lancers at 14-11-2, Lakehead Thunderwolves at 13-12-2, Laurier Golden Hawks at 13-13-2, Nipissing Lakers at 10-12-5, the Gryphs at 11-16-1, Western at 9-18-0 and Waterloo Warriors at 4-18-4.
The loss keeps the Gryphs out of the playoffs for a third consecutive season. They haven’t participated in the league playoffs since their 2-1 triple-overtime victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees at the Gryphon Centre in the Queen’s Cup league championship game March 7, 2020.
Their lone playoff game after that was a 5-1 loss to the Saint Mary’s Huskies in one of two games completed in the 2020 David Johnston University Cup national championship tournament before it was cancelled due to the beginning of the pandemic.
- Guelph Sports Journal