TORONTO, Ont. – Luck has not always been on the side of the Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team this season. But the Gryphons are still among the more dangerous teams in the OUA and they proved that Thursday night. Rookie
Connor Bramwell scored twice and newcomer
Ryan Valentini notched the winner with 28.3 seconds left in overtime to defeat the No. 10 Ryerson Rams 4-3 in a thriller at at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Valentini had the opportunity because of a fantastic save by Guelph goaltender
Andrew Masters, who made a crucial stop on a point-blank Ryerson chance, with the rebound finding Valentini. The new addition to the team cruised down the ice and while Ryerson goalie Troy Timpano saved the initial attempt, Valentini got the puck back and roofed it high to secure two critical, well-earned points in the OUA standings.
The Gryphons wouldn't have been in that position if it wasn't for Bramwell. The rookie got off to a torrid start this year before breaking his collarbone on a scary fall into the boards at the Gryphon Centre in the first half of the season. His first, the 2-2 equalizer, came on a penalty shot at 9:01 of the second period when he beat Timpano with a sweet move and shot on the stick side. Just over a minute later, Bramwell pounced on a big rebound in the slot, stepped into it and buried one past the helpless Ryerson goalie.
Seth Swenson races up ice against Ryerson
That goal unfortunately didn't stand up as the winner as the Rams' Matt Santos scored at the 15:58 mark of the third to tie the game 3-3, setting the stage for the wild finish.
Masters, who had just one win in seven starts entering the night despite posting a 2.58 goals against average and a .919 save percentage, was fantastic late and finished with 29 saves. He also rescued the game earlier in the overtime when he denied Santos with a great stop on a breakaway.
Tryg Strand also scored for Guelph, his first of the season. Strand missed some time with injury this season and has been snake-bitten on many occasions when in the lineup. But his breakthrough goal was an important one for the Gryphons, who trailed 2-0 at the time. Newcomer
Matt Timms did an excellent job holding off a Ryerson defender before sliding a puck to a streaking Strand, who buried a one-timer behind goaltender Timpano minutes after captain Alex Basso had doubled the hosts' lead.
Ryerson went up 1-0 when defenceman Mark Shoemaker buried a point shot with just 2:26 remaining in the first period.
The teams last met in Toronto back on Jan. 5, a 6-2 Guelph win that accounted for the team's second-highest scoring output of the season so far.
Gryphon Take
"We had to play with urgency and within our system. We did that tonight, especially in the third period. It was so good for our guys and the OT was pure fun. This was such a big character win for us. We work hard every night but haven't always got we deserved. Tonight, they were rewarded. We got timely saves, the D pushed the puck and the forwards played responsibly and created lots of scoring chances."
– head coach Shawn Camp
The Record
Guelph is 8-10-0-3 (wins-losses-OT losses-SO losses)
Next up
Western, Saturday, Jan. 19, 7:30 pm @ Gryphon Centre Arena
