Gryphons claim their first home win in a shootout
GUELPH – It didn’t look like it was going to happen at the end of the first period, but the Guelph Gryphons put an end to their winless streak on home ice in OUA women’s hockey play Wednesday night at the Gryphon Centre.
Chihiro Suzuki’s goal in a shootout gave the Gryphs a 4-3 victory over the Brock Badgers and their first home-ice win of the season.
Guelph Gryphons 4 Brock Badgers 3 (SO)
“This team is so resilient in that there’s been a couple of times this year that we’ve had to come back from pretty big deficits and find a way in the last minute to get into overtime,” Gryphon coach Rachel Flanagan said. “Nobody loves spotting a 3-0 lead to a team, but we found our legs and we found our game a little bit more. It wasn’t perfect, I didn’t think. Even in the second and third we weren’t connecting on a lot of our passes. It felt messy, but messy wins are valuable wins.”
“I had my move set before I went,” Suzuki said of her shootout goal. “She (Brock goalie Kenzie Harmison) has been good down low and she’s been shutting the door on everybody else so I kind of trusted my move and stuck to it. I was going to shoot there whether it was open or not so I’m glad it worked out.”
Suzuki scored with a waist-high shot to her right.
“I was 0-for-2 (in previous shootouts) so it was nice to pop one in,” Suzuki said. “Usually things don’t go as planned, but you need the confidence to stick to it, what you think is going to work instead of flip-flopping every time.”
The Gryphs had lost their previous three home games, one of them in a shootout.
“I certainly wasn’t thinking about that,” Flanagan said. “After the first period I was a little bit. Was it the size of our ice? Are we not built for Olympic-size? I don’t know what that is, but it’s nice to get that off our backs. We’ve had years where we’ve been undefeated at home. Last year, I think every game at home was an overtime game or something. It’s an overtime win, but it’s nice to get that win.”
“It was definitely in the back of our mind,” Suzuki said. “We try not to think about it. We try to play our game, the same game, and come out with a win whether it’s home or away. It’s huge for our confidence and huge for the team, too.”
It was also the second time this season the Gryphs and Badgers couldn’t decide a winner in regulation time. Brock scored in overtime Oct. 22 for a 2-1 win at the Canada Games arena on their campus.
Wednesday, Brock led 3-0 at the end of the first period. Such was the play of the Gryphs in that period that the coaching staff decided not to address them during the intermission, preferring the players work out their problems by themselves.
“I didn’t even go in the room after the first period,” Flanagan said. “Both (assistant coach) Katie (Mora) and I mentioned to one of the players that we weren’t coming in and that the room was theirs. There wasn’t much that we were going to say that was going to change the momentum. It had to come from them and they definitely made a push.”
“We had a discussion as a team on what needed to change and what we needed to see more of as a team,” Suzuki said.
“We talked a little bit about winning our battles and staying resilient on the ice instead of retaliating and getting frustrated. We just tried to have fun out there and enjoy the game.”
The Gryphs scored once in the second period and forced the overtime with a pair of goals in the final three and a half minutes of regulation time.
A seven-minute overtime period didn’t produce a winner.
Jaime Magoffin scored twice for the Gryphs during regulation time while Tori Verbeek had a goal and an assist. Meaghan Chittick had two assists and Katherine Heard had one.
Paige Cohoon, Catriona Cormier and Hannah Ryan scored for Brock while single assists went to Lauren Diks, Ashley Robitaille, Madeline Nicholson, Cohoon and Allison Moore.
The Gryphs outshot the Badgers 24-22. Martina Fedel had 19 saves for the locals while Harmison had 21 for Brock.
Both teams were scoreless on their power plays, Guelph on four and Brock on five.
The Gryphs (5-2-1-1) are second in the West Division with 16 points, trailing the Waterloo Warriors (8-0-0-0) who have 22 points. The Badgers are fifth at 3-4-1-1 and nine points.
The Gryphs are to host Waterloo Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Gryphon Centre.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Gryphons claim their first home win in a shootout
GUELPH – It didn’t look like it was going to happen at the end of the first period, but the Guelph Gryphons put an end to their winless streak on home ice in OUA women’s hockey play Wednesday night at the Gryphon Centre.
Chihiro Suzuki’s goal in a shootout gave the Gryphs a 4-3 victory over the Brock Badgers and their first home-ice win of the season.
Guelph Gryphons 4
Brock Badgers 3 (SO)
“This team is so resilient in that there’s been a couple of times this year that we’ve had to come back from pretty big deficits and find a way in the last minute to get into overtime,” Gryphon coach Rachel Flanagan said. “Nobody loves spotting a 3-0 lead to a team, but we found our legs and we found our game a little bit more. It wasn’t perfect, I didn’t think. Even in the second and third we weren’t connecting on a lot of our passes. It felt messy, but messy wins are valuable wins.”
“I had my move set before I went,” Suzuki said of her shootout goal. “She (Brock goalie Kenzie Harmison) has been good down low and she’s been shutting the door on everybody else so I kind of trusted my move and stuck to it. I was going to shoot there whether it was open or not so I’m glad it worked out.”
Suzuki scored with a waist-high shot to her right.
“I was 0-for-2 (in previous shootouts) so it was nice to pop one in,” Suzuki said. “Usually things don’t go as planned, but you need the confidence to stick to it, what you think is going to work instead of flip-flopping every time.”
The Gryphs had lost their previous three home games, one of them in a shootout.
“I certainly wasn’t thinking about that,” Flanagan said. “After the first period I was a little bit. Was it the size of our ice? Are we not built for Olympic-size? I don’t know what that is, but it’s nice to get that off our backs. We’ve had years where we’ve been undefeated at home. Last year, I think every game at home was an overtime game or something. It’s an overtime win, but it’s nice to get that win.”
“It was definitely in the back of our mind,” Suzuki said. “We try not to think about it. We try to play our game, the same game, and come out with a win whether it’s home or away. It’s huge for our confidence and huge for the team, too.”
It was also the second time this season the Gryphs and Badgers couldn’t decide a winner in regulation time. Brock scored in overtime Oct. 22 for a 2-1 win at the Canada Games arena on their campus.
Wednesday, Brock led 3-0 at the end of the first period. Such was the play of the Gryphs in that period that the coaching staff decided not to address them during the intermission, preferring the players work out their problems by themselves.
“I didn’t even go in the room after the first period,” Flanagan said. “Both (assistant coach) Katie (Mora) and I mentioned to one of the players that we weren’t coming in and that the room was theirs. There wasn’t much that we were going to say that was going to change the momentum. It had to come from them and they definitely made a push.”
“We had a discussion as a team on what needed to change and what we needed to see more of as a team,” Suzuki said.
“We talked a little bit about winning our battles and staying resilient on the ice instead of retaliating and getting frustrated. We just tried to have fun out there and enjoy the game.”
The Gryphs scored once in the second period and forced the overtime with a pair of goals in the final three and a half minutes of regulation time.
A seven-minute overtime period didn’t produce a winner.
Jaime Magoffin scored twice for the Gryphs during regulation time while Tori Verbeek had a goal and an assist. Meaghan Chittick had two assists and Katherine Heard had one.
Paige Cohoon, Catriona Cormier and Hannah Ryan scored for Brock while single assists went to Lauren Diks, Ashley Robitaille, Madeline Nicholson, Cohoon and Allison Moore.
The Gryphs outshot the Badgers 24-22. Martina Fedel had 19 saves for the locals while Harmison had 21 for Brock.
Both teams were scoreless on their power plays, Guelph on four and Brock on five.
The Gryphs (5-2-1-1) are second in the West Division with 16 points, trailing the Waterloo Warriors (8-0-0-0) who have 22 points. The Badgers are fifth at 3-4-1-1 and nine points.
The Gryphs are to host Waterloo Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Gryphon Centre.
- Guelph Sports Journal