At a time in the season when most teams are knuckling under defensively in preparation for the playoffs, along comes a game that is pure offene. Such was the case Friday night when the Guelph Gryphons and the York Lions put on an offensive showcase with the Lions prevailing 8-7 in shootout in York.
Fans were barely in their seats when the scoring started with York grabbing a 2-0 lead on goals by Matt Thomson and Adam Stuart. Guelph replied with one of their own by Cale Jefferies (Embro, Mb.) on a nifty pass from Geoff Guimond (Mississauga). Before the period was over J.K. Gill added another for York to give them a 3-1 first intermission lead.
The second period featured five goals in total with Guelph scoring their first of four powerplay goals on the evening by Zach Lillie (Bracebridge) set up by Kris Belan (Florence). Jesse Grespan restored the two-goal lead for York with a marker a couple minutes later and Guelph again responded on a goal by Thomas Kiriakou (Richmond Hill) with assists to his linemates Mike Kusy (St. Catherines) and Mike Mcfarlane (Whitby). Guelph finally pulled even in the game on another powerplay marker by Lillie set up by Kiriakou and Tim Priamo (Guelph). However, the tie was shortlived when Chad Hohmann restored the lead for the Lions before the end of the period. Guelph outshot York 14-9 in the period.
The wild scoring continued again in the third when Belan scored for Guelph to tie the affair at five on assists from Priamo and Kiriakou. Guelph seemed to grab a firm hold on the game when they scored two more goals in short order on another powerplay goal by Belan with assists from Priamo and Lillie and yet again on a beautiful end to end rush with an outstanding deke by Justin Gvora (Thunder Bay) set up by Priamo. No lead in this game was safe and York reduced the lead on a goal by Jeff Matheson to set up a wild finish. With the goalie on the bench for York and the extra attacker in the mix, Grespan tipped in a point shot with three seconds left to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The overtime period solved nothing so it was off to shootout and both goalies dominated in the end. Only Grespan would score for York in the shootout to give York the 8-7 win.
Andrew Loverock went the distance for Guelph stopping 24 of 32 shots he faced and Travis Rolheiser went the distance for York stopping 32 of 39 shots. Guelph was 4/7 on the powerplay while York went 1/3.
The final regular season game for the Gryphons is Saturday when they travel to London to face the Western Mustangs at Thompson Arena @ 7:35. This final affair will help determine who the Gryphons will face next week when playoff action starts in the OUA.
