GUELPH, ON – For almost 30 minutes on Friday night, the Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team hung in there with the first-place team in the OUA East, the McGill Redmen.
In the end, the Redmen would show why they're ranked No. 3 in the country by U SPORTS.
After a scoreless first period, McGill outscored Guelph 3-1 in the middle frame en route to a 4-2 victory in OUA action Friday night at the Gryphon Centre.
"We played just well enough to lose tonight, unfortunately," said Gryphs head coach
Shawn Camp.
"They pushed us around in our own rink in the second period and won way more battles. They played like a team that's one of the top teams in our league."
The Gryphs were arguably the better team in the first period, outshooting the Redmen 15-9 and frustrating them repeatedly. As a result, the play got increasingly chippy as the period went on.
Jerome Verrier of McGill finally broke the ice at the 2:30 mark of the second period, coming down the right wing and snapping a laser over the left shoulder of Gryphons netminder
Keith Hamilton.
Michael Stevens immediately responded for Guelph, beating Redmen goalie Jacob Gervais-Chouinard only 31 seconds later to tie the score 1-1.
But McGill slowly took control after that, spending more and more time in the Gryphons zone and creating plenty of havoc around the net. Nathanael Halbert made it 2-1 for the visitors off a scramble at 11:03, and then Guillaume Gauthier scored a power-play marker at 12:46.
"You just can't take a shift off, because they're so quick in transition and they have a killer instinct that's put them at the top of the league," Camp said of the Redmen, who are in first place in the OUA East Division with an 18-4-2 record. "You can't play with fire, getting into chance for chance with them."
Especially when the Gryphs couldn't make the most of their chances. They started the third period with a five-minute man advantage after a scrum that nearly turned into a line brawl at the end of the second, but couldn't score.
They did score later in the frame, with
Seth Swenson trimming the deficit to 3-2 on another power play, but Rock Regimbald restored McGill's two-goal advantage only 24 seconds after that.
"We gave it right back after we scored," said a disappointed Camp. "We gave the momentum right back."
The Gryphs couldn't generate any luck as they tried again to come back. At one point, while shorthanded, they had a three-on-one in the Redmen zone, but couldn't beat Gervais-Chouinard. They also couldn't capitalize on a six-on-four situation for two full minutes late in the game.
Gervais-Chouinard made 31 saves to earn the win. Hamilton stopped 28 shots in a losing cause.
"We executed well at times, but not for enough of the game to beat a team of that quality," Camp said. "Clearly we have to find it in us to be good for 60 minutes against the best teams that we'll now face right through the end of the season."
The Gryphs fall to 13-9-1 and remain in third place in an increasingly tight OUA West Division. They've now dropped two straight games after winning eight of nine.
They don't have much time to reflect about their fortunes, though. They're right back at it on Saturday night with another home game against the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the Gryphon Centre.
"We have to regroup real quick and come back tomorrow a little bit hungrier, make sure we don't sag in the second period like we did tonight," Camp said. "If we can do that, we'll be fine."
