GUELPH, Ont. –  The Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team always circles this date on the calendar. Hockey Day in Gryphonville is where the past intersects with the present. Unfortunately for Guelph's current players, a win wasn't in the cards. Guelph played well and tried to rally late but ultimately lost 4-3 to the Brock Badgers on a busy day at Gryphon Centre Arena.

The crowd for Hockey Day in Gryphonville was a good one and it was a heart-warming sight to witness 13 members of the 1957/58 men's team in attendance for another good battle with the rival Badgers.

Fifth-year defenceman Reilly O'Connor scored twice, while Stephen Hiff had the other Guelph goal.

Andrew Masters made his second consecutive start in between the pipes and stopped 22 of 26 shots faced.

O'Connor would net his second of the day at 18:49 of the third period to give the hosts some hope and they had a late faceoff in the Brock end looking for an equalizer. But the Badgers gained possession and sent the puck out of the zone to preserve the win and hand Guelph its sixth straight loss on home ice.

The Gryphons haven't started well in recent outings at their rink and they would be playing from behind again as Brock got off the mark with an Adam Berg goal at 4:59 of the first. Guelph bounced right back when O'Connor tied it 1-1 less than two minutes later and then got its first lead on home ice in a while when Hiff scored midway through a wild first period.

Brock took advantage of a second-period lull by the Gryphons and retook the lead on goals from Jared Marino and Ayden MacDonald about seven minutes apart.

The dagger would come shortly after Guelph was called for roughing at 12:51 of the third period. On the subsequent Brock power play less than a minute later, Ethan Spaxman scored to put the visitors up 4-2 for what proved to be the game-winning goal. 

Gryphon Take

"It's all part of our process in getting better. It's where we're at right now. We scored some goals today, which was very encouraging. We competed very well for two of the three periods. We sagged in the second after a real good first but we're getting more pucks to the net. We're more dangerous and creating chances. We have to avoid some of the little drops in momentum that we have and be more disciplined."

"Guys are frustrated. We have unfortunately played from behind in most of our games this year. That's something that we're trying to do, get ahead of the game rather than chasing. If we can do that, it will certainly help. Playing for 60 minutes is the goal here and when we do, we'll get the results we want and get on a good run."

"This is one of the most important days of the year for our program. We get so many of our alumni to take time out of their busy schedules to come back and visit with us. We've always said that it's so critical for the guys to understand the history of our program before we know where we're going. For that, we're very thankful they have come to spend time with the players talking to them and sharing their stories because they've all become successful people in their lives. They've all had a positive influence by playing in this program. It's such a great thing for them to come back and have our guys thank them."  – head coach Shawn Camp

The Record

Guelph is 2-5-0-2

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