KINGSTON, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team was expected to have balanced scoring throughout the lineup in the new 2018/19 season. And a new winger is making some welcome contributions on that front. Rookie Connor Bramwell scored two goals to help the Gryphons to a 4-0 win over the RMC Paladins Saturday night in Kingston.
 
Bramwell, who played with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the QMJHL last season, scored the first two goals of the game, the third and fourth of the young OUA season for the Hamilton, ON native.
 
Third-year winger Nick Boyer and captain Scott Simmonds also tallied for Guelph, which won for the second time in as many nights with another excellent offensive performance. Evan Cormier got the call again between the pipes and was sharp in picking up his first OUA shutout. The New Jersey Devils draft pick turned away all 31 shots he faced.
 
After scoring three power-play goals in their 7-1 demolition of Queen's Friday night, the Gryphon special teams unit got right back to work against the Paladins. Bramwell continued to make a great impression in his rookie campaign, burying a chance past RMC goalie Brad Van Schubert on a Guelph man advantage at 16:38 of the opening period.
 
The newcomer registered his second of the night with an excellent move and backhand finish near the midway point of second period.
 
Boyer extended the Guelph lead to 3-0 less than two minutes later after one-timing a feed from rookie defenceman Stephen Templeton, in what proved to be a wild 20 minutes of action. The Gryphons sent 23 shots Van Schubert's way and the RMC netminder turned away 21, in addition to stopping a Tryg Strand penalty shot when the score was 2-0. Van Schubert made 49 saves in total.
 
Simmonds closed out the scoring with a redirect at 14:32 of the final period. The goal was the captain's fourth through five games.
 
Gryphon Take
"This was a good road trip for us. Full credit to the guys for the effort they put in. They deserved to win. Our transition game was real good tonight and we created a lot of scoring opportunities."

"Connor plays the game the right way. He's hard on the puck and gets to the net. That's why he's getting rewarded." – head coach Shawn Camp
 
The Record
Guelph is 2-1-0-2.
 
Next up
@ Cornell (exhibition), Sunday, Oct. 21, 4 pm in Ithaca, NY
@ Ryerson, Thursday, Oct. 25, 7:15 pm