Box Score
Guelph, ON - Thursday night at the Gryphon Centre, the University of Guelph women's hockey team opened their playoffs with a 2-1 overtime win against the Ryerson Rams.  Kelly Gribbons scored the OT winner for the Gryphons who now lead the OUA quarterfinal best-of-three series 1-0.  Game 2 goes Saturday at 2pm in Toronto.

Game 1 didn't start the way the Gryphons had envisioned. Guelph would get off to a rough start, taking a too many men penalty in the early minutes of the game. The penalty killers would stay strong, not allowing any real chances for the Rams. Moments later however, bad would turn to worse when a bouncing puck would hop over Mackenzie Wong's (Surrey, BC) stick, and land on Emma Rutherford's (Kanata, ON) with just the goalie to beat. She would look high on Stepanie Nehring (Oshawa, ON) and connect to make the game 1-0 Rams. It would take nine minutes for the Gryphons to get their first shot, but from that point on, the Gryphons would have the majority of the chances, missing rebound opportunities on the power play. The Rams would take their 1-0 lead into the dressing room after the opening 20 minutes.
 
The second period was a defensive battle for both teams. The Gryphons were trying to get the tying goal but the defensive play by the Rams stalemated any attempt. Ryerson's first year goalie Ally Sarna (Whitby, ON) would make a few big saves to keep the shut out alive, as well as maintaining the one goal lead. On the other side of the rink, the Gryphons were not allowing the Rams to increase their lead in any way. The back end of the Gryphons continued to keep it close.  With less then two minutes left in the period, the Gryphons would get their first big chance of the period when the puck came out front of the net for Kelly Gribbons (Port Elgin, ON), who would try and slide is past Sarna on her back hand. Sarna was able to get her pad down and slide over to keep the puck out. The second would end with the Rams still up 1-0 with a big third period in the future.
 
The Gryphons came out eager to tie it up at the beginning of the third period. Guelph wasted no time, keeping the puck in the Rams zone for the majority of the first half of the period. The Gryphons would get the chances, but Sarna would continue to be solid back between the pipes. With less than ten minutes left, an awkward bounce of the end boards would hit a Ram and trickle into the crease of Sarna, who was able to sit on the puck and keep it out, maintaining the lead.  With five minutes left Stephanie Chiste (Nobleton, ON) would take a body-checking penalty, putting the Gryphons on the power play.  With 11 seconds left in the power play Gina Murray (Lucknow, ON) would enter the zone with Averi Nooren (Aylmer, ON) trailing. Murray would drop the puck back to Nooren who took a high wrist shot eluding Sarna, going off her glove and bouncing into the back into the net to tie the game 1-1 with three minutes remaining. When the Gryphons and Rams met up in Guelph during the regular season, overtime was needed; the same would be true for Game 1 of the OUA quarterfinals as the two were locked at 1-1 after 60 minutes of play.

The Gryphons would dominate the overtime period, as they hemmed the Rams in their zone. Chance after chance would go the way of the Gryphons when finally a blocked shot would land on Kelly Gribbons stick, much like the play in the second period. This time, Gribbons was able to slide the puck underneath Sarna and into the back of the net, giving the Gryphons the victory in the all-important Game 1 of the series. 
The Gryphons will now try to close out the series on Saturday, February 21^st, in Toronto at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.  Puck drop is set for 2:30pm.