Guelph Gryphons take opening match of semifinal series

GUELPH – A power-play goal late in the first period stood up as the lone goal of the game as the Guelph Gryphons opened the OUA women’s hockey semifinals with a 1-0 win over the Toronto Varsity Blues Wednesday at the Gryphon Centre.

Katherine Heard scored for the Gryphs with 1:19 to go in the opening period. Jaime Magoffin and Hannah Tait assisted on the play.

The Gryphs outshot Toronto 31-21 despite being outshot 10-5 in the second period. Guelph was 1-for-3 on its power play while the Varsity Blues were scoreless on six power plays.

Martina Fedel of the Gryphs stopped 21 shots for her third consecutive shutout while Erica Fryer had 30 saves for the Varsity Blues.

Second game of the series is set for Friday at 7 p.m. at Toronto’s Varsity Arena.

If Toronto wins that game, the third and deciding game of the series is to be played at the Gryphon Arena Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

As the Gryphs and Varsity Blues are the top two seeds in the playoffs, whoever wins the series is to host the McCaw Cup championship game March 9.

• Guelph Sports Journal