The Guelph Gryphon women's hockey team dropped a 3-2 shootout decision to the CIS No. 2 Laurier Golden Hawks on Thursday (Jan. 27) night at the Gryphon Centre.

The loss drops the Gryphons to 13-6-3 while the Golden Hawks improve to 21-1-1.

 The Gryphons opened the scoring in the first period capitalizing on the power play, as Carla D'Angela (Hamilton, Ont.) setup fourth year Erin Small (Pickering, Ont.) who beat Laurier goaltender Kristen Kilgallen (Guelph, Ont.). After the first period shots on goal were 7-5 in Guelph's favour.

The Golden Hawks would tie the game 6:22 into the second period when Alannah Wakefield received a pass from Abby Rainsberry at the blueline and fired a bullet past Gryphon goaltender Dannielle Skoufranis (Thornhill, Ont.).  

Laurier would take a 2-1 lead 12:02 into the second period as Devon Skeats buried a shot past Skoufranis.

The second period continued to be a hard fought battle as neither team was able to capitalize on their power play advantage.  Shots on goal in the second period finished in Laurier's favour 14-8.                                

With 17 seconds left on the clock Gryphon rookie Kaitie Mora (Guelph, Ont.) scored, sending the game to overtime. Guelph led shots on goal in the third 5-4.

Neither team was able to score throughout overtime to send the game into a shootout.

After the first five shots were stopped by their respective goalies, Laurier had the final shot in the round. With their third shot, Laurier's Katherine Shirriff was able to make some nice stick-handling into the shootout winner.

Skoufranis finished with 23 saves in the loss, while Kilgallen finished made 20 saves for the win.

Up next the Gryphons are back at the Gryphon Centre on Sunday (Jan. 30) for a tilt against the Waterloo Warriors.  Puck drops at 2:00 p.m.

BOX SCORE:

Laurier 3 (SO) at Guelph 2 - Status: End of Game SO
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - Gryphon Centre Arena

Laurier 0 2 0 0 - 3
Guelph 1 0 1 0 - 2

1st Period-1, Guelph, Small 11 (Bell), 16:50 (PP). Penalties-Lester Wlu (hooking), 3:38; Brooker Wlu (high sticking), 10:52; Hodgins Gue (interference), 13:14; Skeats Wlu (hooking), 16:26.

2nd Period-2, Laurier, Wakefield 6 (Rainsberry), 6:22. 3, Laurier, Skeats 5 (Lester), 12:02 (PP). Penalties-Rainsberry Wlu (cross checking), 7:22; Shirriff Wlu (hooking), 8:15; Harris Gue (interference), 10:48; Connelly Wlu (hooking), 17:26; Hodgins Gue (hooking), 19:44.

3rd Period-4, Guelph, Mora 12   19:43. Penalties-Shirriff Wlu (hooking), 4:17; Shirriff Wlu (interference), 15:38; Brooker Wlu (elbowing), 18:18.

OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties

Shootout - Laurier 1 (Wakefield NG, Freiburger NG, Shirriff G), Guelph 0 (Corbett NG, Bell NG, Mora NG).
Shots on Goal-Laurier 5-14-4-2-1-26. Guelph 7-8-5-2-0-22.
Power Play Opportunities-Laurier 1 / 3; Guelph 1 / 9.
Goalies-Laurier, Kilgallen 1-0-0 (22 shots-20 saves). Guelph, Skoufranis 8-5-0 (25 shots-23 saves).