Gryphon women nip Nipissing in overtime
NORTH BAY – Katherine Heard’s goal after almost five minutes of overtime gave the Guelph Gryphons a 2-1 victory over the Nipissing Lakers in a battle of division leaders in OUA women’s hockey play Friday at the North Bay Memorial Gardens.
The winning goal was an unassisted power-play marker.
Katelyn Dance scored the other goal for Guelph, also unassisted. It came seven and a half minutes into the first period.
Malory Dominico scored for North Bay six minutes into the second period. Assists went to Maggie McKee and Madison Laberge.
The Gryphs outshot Nipissing 38-28 including a 16-8 advantage in the first period and an 8-2 advantage in overtime. Guelph went 1-for-7 on its power play while Nipissing was scoreless on four power plays. The Gryphs has two power plays in overtime, both on minor penalties to the Nipissing scorer, the final one for holding coming 16 seconds before the winning goal.
Martina Fedel had 27 saves in the Gryphon net while Chantelle Sandquist had 36 for Nipissing.
The win was the 12th in a row for the Gryphs. Their last loss was a 1-0 setback in overtime to the Laurier Golden Hawks at the Gryphon Centre Nov. 17.
The Gryphs lead the West Division at 17-3-2-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) while Nipissing leads the East Division at 14-5-1-3. Both teams have already clinched playoff berths and home-ice advantage in the opening round.
Guelph is ranked third in the country and Nipissing sixth.
The Gryphs have five games remaining on their regular season including a match against the Queen’s Gaels (third in East Division at 9-3-0-10) Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Gryphon Centre.
- Guelph Sports Journal