ST. CATHARINES - Mayors from both cities, Presidents and Athletic Directors from both universities and student newspapers from both schools were all involved in placing friendly wagers in advance of Brock's annual Homecoming hockey game versus Guelph. When the dust finally settled on Friday night, it was the Gryphons who were on the winning end of those friendly wagers thanks to an impressive performance on the ice by the U of G men's hockey team.
After the Brock Badgers scored 30 seconds into the game to take a 1-0 lead, the Gryphons exploded for four goals in the 2nd period and would hang on for a 5-3 victory to spoil the party for the crowd of 4,974 at the Meridian Centre. It marked the first time in seven years that the Badgers have been on the losing end in the game dubbed the "Steel Blade Classic."
"We're proud to win the Steel Blade. We love playing in this event. There's such a great energy in the crowd and we're honoured to be a part of it. We can't think a better way to start our season," said Gryphons head coach
Shawn Camp. "After giving one up early, we trusted our guys would work their way back into it. I thought we controlled play for big chunks tonight and capitalized on our chances in that 2nd period. The veteran guys came up big and we really liked what we saw from our young players tonight."
All five goals scored by the Gryphons were scored by fourth year players.
Michael Stevens,
Trevor Morbeck,
Cody Thompson and
Scott Simmonds accounted for the four 2nd period goals.
Seth Swenson sealed the win with an empty netter late.
Among the eight U of G rookies who were making their Gryphon debuts was goalie
Andrew Masters. The Kitchener native, and NCAA transfer from Miami of Ohio, earned his first victory in the red, black and gold but was quick to give credit to his offence, "When I was recruited here, one of the things that I was told was that the Gryphons can score goals, and we saw that in the 2nd period. Tonight was definitely a great way to start the preseason. We just finished making our final cuts on Monday, so we're still familiarizing ourselves with each other. But we also have some great veterans on this team so it's a nice balance. It's just great to start with a quality win like this."
Masters made 23 saves on the night. Fellow rookies
Mathieu Henderson (1 assist) and
Patrick Kudla (2 assists) also impressed on the night.
Friday's Steel Blade Classic marked the opening of Guelph's 2017-18 preseason schedule. The Gryphons will play a total of four exhibition games before opening up their OUA regular season play on Wednesday, October 11 when the Badgers visit the Gryphon Centre.
Up next for the Gryphs, an exhibition matchup in Toronto versus the Varsity Blues on September 29.
