Box Score

Guelph, Ont. - A near capacity crowd, a combined 10 goals scored and a Gryphons victory.  Not a bad way to celebrate Winter Homecoming.  The Gryphons men's hockey team won 6-4 over the Brock Badgers Friday night at the Sleeman Centre in the sixth edition of the Frosty Mug.  With the win, the Gryphons (6-11-3) move into a tie with Toronto for the final playoff spot in the OUA's West Division. 
 
If you are a fan of the Gryphons, the 2015 Frosty Mug certainly got off to a cold start as Brock would open the scoring just 44 seconds into the game.  Just 26 seconds after that, the Badgers would go up 2-0 after Gregory Jambrosich (Hamilton, ON) would finish off a 2-on-0.  After a nervous start to the game, the Gryphons would quickly respond as captain Daniel Broussard (Fayetteville, NC) would break out on a two-on-one and feather a pass to Teal Burns (Victoria, BC) who would score his sixth of the season to make it a 2-1 game.  Former Guelph Storm defenceman MacKenzie Nichol (Listowel, ON), who assisted on the opening goal, would pick up his second assist of the night with a beautiful pass to Scott Simmonds (Uxbridge, ON) who re-directed home.  With that, the game was off to a flying start as four first period goals were split 2-2.
 
In the second period, the goals would continue to pour out of the 2015 Frosty Mug.  A slap shot from just inside the blueline from Brock rookie Taylor Fielding (Clarington, ON) would beat Andrew D'Agostini (Scarborough, ON) high blocker and give the Badgers a 3-2 lead.  47 seconds later, the Gryphons would answer as a sharp angled shot from Carlos Amestoy (Toronto, ON) would find a way past Brock's fourth year goalie Adrian Volpe.  Mac Nichol picked up his third assist of the night on the goal.  Later in the period, the Gryphons appeared to take a 4-3 lead when Robert De Fulviis (Toronto, ON) fired home, but the goal was immediately waved off after the Gryphons were called for too many men on the ice.  After 40 minutes of play, the Gryphons and Badgers were tied at 3-3.  
 
The Gryphons seemed to feed off of the energy of the home crowd in the third period.  Moments after the fans had started doing "the wave" around the Sleeman Centre, Nicklas Huard (North Bay, ON) would fire home a wrist shot high glove side to give the Frosty Mug record crowd of 3,699 even more reason to celebrate.  Unfortunately for the Gryphons, the lead would not last long.  With D'Agostini dealing with some traffic in front of the net, Dan MacEachern (Mississauga, ON) would knot the game at 4-4 as things were tied up for the third time of the night. 
 
A theme of the night was the Gryphons ability to win the battles along the boards deep in the offensive end.  With just over eight minutes to go, 6-foot-2, 200 pound centre Michael Hasson (Ariss, ON) would help win another one of those battles in Brock's end of the ice.  The third year forward was able to get it over to defenceman Steven Strong (Oakville, ON) who would fire a perfectly placed wrist shot into the top corner to send the Gryphon faithful into a frenzy as Guelph took a 5-4 lead.  The question was, could they hold on. 
 
Former Peterborough Pete netminder Andrew D'Agostini would come up with a pair of huge saves to help maintain the Gryphons one goal lead.  Brock's leading scorer Sammy Banga (Windsor, ON) would have all day in front of the net, but D'Agostini would stand tall, turning him away from point blank.  Moments later, D'Agostini was at it again, robbing Banga from in close.  D'Agostini finished the night with 26 saves.  With just over a minute to go, the Badgers were called for a holding the stick penalty, putting the Gryphons on the power play for the remainder of regulation.  In desperation, Brock would pull their goalie to get back to even strength.  The gamble would not pay off as Jordan Mock's empty net goal with 31 seconds to go would seal the 6-4 victory for the Gryphons.  
 
With the win, the Gryphons improve to 4-2-0 all-time at the Frosty Mug.  The combined 10 goals also meant it was the highest scoring game in Frosty Mug history.  Steven Strong's game-winning goal earned him the third star of the game.  Mac Nichol's three assist made him the second star, while Carlos Amestoy was all over the ice all night long, finishing with a goal and an assist to take home the first star. 
 
The celebrations will be short-lived, as the Gryphons are right back at it on Saturday (Jan. 17) as they travel to Toronto to take on York at 7pm.  Five of the Gryphons final seven games come on the road, as the York game marks the beginning of a five game road trip.

Note: the ceremonial puck drop featured St. Louis Blues first round draft pick and Team Canada World Junior gold medalist Robby Fabbri.  Robby, who also led the Guelph Storm to an OHL Championship last season, has an older brother, Len, who plays for the Gryphons.