Two wins in two days as Gryphons take home opener
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons made their opening weekend of the OUA men’s hockey league’s regular season a winning one as they held on to edge the Waterloo Warriors in their home opener Saturday night at the Gryphon Centre.
The Gryphs hit for the first three goals of the game, then withstood a comeback attempt by Waterloo for a 3-2 victory.
Guelph Gryphons 3 Waterloo Warriors 2
The Gryphs had won their season opener 6-5 in overtime over the Western Mustangs in London Friday night.
“It’s great to be back into a full season and it feels like it used to when we were either defending champs or fighting for an opportunity to go deep into the playoffs,” Gryphon head coach Sean Camp said. “This is a really young and enthusiastic group. We had a lot of turnover from guys who went pro during the pauses that we had last year so there’s a lot of new faces, but they’re meshing quickly with the veterans. It’s a good start to the regular season.”
Saturday, the Gryphs scored a pair of goals three and a half minutes apart to take a 2-0 lead in the first period.
The hosts added their third goal 75 seconds into the middle frame before the Warriors came back by getting their own two goals in three and a half minutes to close the gap to a single goal by the end of the second.
The teams battled scoreless through the third period.
Luke Bignell, Jacob Winterton and Anthony Tabak had a goal apiece for the Gryphs while assists were awarded to Nathan Allensen, Liam Ham, Tristan De Jong, Luke Kutkevicius and Nolan DeGurse.
Chase Campbell and Alex Gritz scored for Waterloo while Jack Phibbs and Tate Popple each had an assist.
The Gryphs outshot Waterloo 28-27 and both teams were scoreless on four power plays.
Brendan Cregan had 25 saves to get the win in net for the Gryphs while Dan Murphy had the same number of saves for Waterloo.
The Gryphs are out to rebound from last season’s interrupted campaign when they went 4-9-3 in league play. The global pandemic caused an extended break for exams and Christmas during which time players left the team to go play professionally. Their absence and injuries left the team with a depleted lineup.
Injuries to goaltenders also left the team having to forfeit three games they had won due to having backup netminder for those games. The Gryphs have addressed that this season by carrying four goalies on the roster – Cregan, Colton Incze, Guelph Minor Hockey Association product Tanner Wickware and Cornell Big Red transfer Nate McDonald.
“We planned that coming into the season based on the situation last year where all our goalies were injured,” Camp said. “The guys here are all capable of being a No. 1 goalie. They’re all really competitive guys and they all get along really well so it’s a really positive situation. They all understand that based on what we went through last year, we can’t afford to have that happen again. They get that and they’re really competing hard for us so we’re off to a good start with that.”
After the winning weekend in league play, the Gryphs are off to the U.S. for three exhibition games against NCAA opponents this week.
“We’re really looking forward to that,” Camp said. “The pace is so fast and we’re playing nine of our first 10 games on the road this year so it creates some adversity for our guys which is not a bad thing. But these three games we’re looking forward to because they’re really fast teams with high-end skill. It’s going to be a great challenge for us and it gets our team again away on the road together. Our team is growing and learning about each other so this is another great opportunity for our team to grow.”
The Gryphs are to play Cornell at Ithaca, N.Y., Thursday, the Dartmouth Big Green at Hanover, NH, Friday and the Harvard Crimson at Cambridge, Mass., Saturday. All feature 7 p.m. game times.
That stretch of nine road games in their first 10 games includes their preseason when the Gryphs played all four of their preseason games away from Guelph, Friday’s win at London, the three games this week against NCAA teams and a game Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. in Toronto against the Toronto Metropolitan Bold (nee Ryerson Rams).
Next home game is Oct. 27 when the Gryphs are to host the Lakehead Thunderwolves at the Gryphon Centre. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Two wins in two days as Gryphons take home opener
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons made their opening weekend of the OUA men’s hockey league’s regular season a winning one as they held on to edge the Waterloo Warriors in their home opener Saturday night at the Gryphon Centre.
The Gryphs hit for the first three goals of the game, then withstood a comeback attempt by Waterloo for a 3-2 victory.
Guelph Gryphons 3
Waterloo Warriors 2
The Gryphs had won their season opener 6-5 in overtime over the Western Mustangs in London Friday night.
“It’s great to be back into a full season and it feels like it used to when we were either defending champs or fighting for an opportunity to go deep into the playoffs,” Gryphon head coach Sean Camp said. “This is a really young and enthusiastic group. We had a lot of turnover from guys who went pro during the pauses that we had last year so there’s a lot of new faces, but they’re meshing quickly with the veterans. It’s a good start to the regular season.”
Saturday, the Gryphs scored a pair of goals three and a half minutes apart to take a 2-0 lead in the first period.
The hosts added their third goal 75 seconds into the middle frame before the Warriors came back by getting their own two goals in three and a half minutes to close the gap to a single goal by the end of the second.
The teams battled scoreless through the third period.
Luke Bignell, Jacob Winterton and Anthony Tabak had a goal apiece for the Gryphs while assists were awarded to Nathan Allensen, Liam Ham, Tristan De Jong, Luke Kutkevicius and Nolan DeGurse.
Chase Campbell and Alex Gritz scored for Waterloo while Jack Phibbs and Tate Popple each had an assist.
The Gryphs outshot Waterloo 28-27 and both teams were scoreless on four power plays.
Brendan Cregan had 25 saves to get the win in net for the Gryphs while Dan Murphy had the same number of saves for Waterloo.
The Gryphs are out to rebound from last season’s interrupted campaign when they went 4-9-3 in league play. The global pandemic caused an extended break for exams and Christmas during which time players left the team to go play professionally. Their absence and injuries left the team with a depleted lineup.
Injuries to goaltenders also left the team having to forfeit three games they had won due to having backup netminder for those games. The Gryphs have addressed that this season by carrying four goalies on the roster – Cregan, Colton Incze, Guelph Minor Hockey Association product Tanner Wickware and Cornell Big Red transfer Nate McDonald.
“We planned that coming into the season based on the situation last year where all our goalies were injured,” Camp said. “The guys here are all capable of being a No. 1 goalie. They’re all really competitive guys and they all get along really well so it’s a really positive situation. They all understand that based on what we went through last year, we can’t afford to have that happen again. They get that and they’re really competing hard for us so we’re off to a good start with that.”
After the winning weekend in league play, the Gryphs are off to the U.S. for three exhibition games against NCAA opponents this week.
“We’re really looking forward to that,” Camp said. “The pace is so fast and we’re playing nine of our first 10 games on the road this year so it creates some adversity for our guys which is not a bad thing. But these three games we’re looking forward to because they’re really fast teams with high-end skill. It’s going to be a great challenge for us and it gets our team again away on the road together. Our team is growing and learning about each other so this is another great opportunity for our team to grow.”
The Gryphs are to play Cornell at Ithaca, N.Y., Thursday, the Dartmouth Big Green at Hanover, NH, Friday and the Harvard Crimson at Cambridge, Mass., Saturday. All feature 7 p.m. game times.
That stretch of nine road games in their first 10 games includes their preseason when the Gryphs played all four of their preseason games away from Guelph, Friday’s win at London, the three games this week against NCAA teams and a game Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. in Toronto against the Toronto Metropolitan Bold (nee Ryerson Rams).
Next home game is Oct. 27 when the Gryphs are to host the Lakehead Thunderwolves at the Gryphon Centre. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal