GUELPH, Ont. – The tide looks to be turning for the Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team. The Gryphons have been dying for some puck luck lately in order to turn around an uncharacteristic offensive drought – and they got exactly that against one of their biggest OUA rivals. Guelph found the back of the net with regularity in a 7-1 demolition of Western Mustangs on home ice Saturday night.
 
On the heels of a dramatic 4-3 overtime win at Ryerson Thursday night, the Gryphons were sharp in building a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes against the Mustangs before pumping in five goals during a wild third period.
 
Rookie defenceman Justin Lemcke had the first goal of his OUA career, while Marc Stevens scored twice. Cody Thompson, Michael Stevens, Seth Swenson (3 points), and defenceman Jesse Saban also had goals for Guelph, with captain Scott Simmonds chipping in three assists.
 
Gryphon goaltender Andrew Masters kept up his sensational stretch, stopping 39 of 40 shots that came his way for his second win in three days after registering one in his first five starts.
 
Lemcke, a Whitby, ON native who played with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, showed his skill by taking a feed from Swenson and making a nice move in the slot before beating Western goalie David Ovsjannikov glove side at the 12:04 mark of the first period.
 
The tension grew in a second period that featured 11 penalties, including two misconduct calls. Guelph doubled the lead at 16:44 when Michael Stevens rushed in and dropped a pass back to Boyer, who unloaded a shot on Ovsjannikov. Stevens made his way to the net and got a stick on the puck for what proved to be the game-winner.
 
The Gryphons entered the night with the best penalty-killing unit in the OUA at a 91.1 per cent success rate but Western came up with a rare power-play goal against them. Mustang winger Kenny Huether roofed a shot high on the glove side of Masters to get the visitors within a goal.
 
But Guelph ended any hope of a Mustang comeback when Thompson began the third-period explosion with a goal just 2:36 in. Marc Stevens added one at 9:05 and then scored his second, on the power play, just over three minutes later.
 
Western showed a lack of discipline all night in racking up 36 penalty minutes and the visitors paid for it again late when Swenson cashed in on another Guelph man advantage to stretch the lead to 6-1. The Gryphons' power-play unit looked great, finishing the night 2-for-5.
 
Saban closed out the scoring at 13:51 of the third, Guelph's fifth goal of the period in a span of just over 11 minutes.
 
The Gryphons will now gear up for one of the biggest nights on the schedule when they host Laurier in the 10^th annual Frosty Mug at the Sleeman Centre next week.
 
Gryphon Take
"We've been playing the right way. We're keeping it simple and moving our feet, creating lots of scoring chances. We followed up an excellent effort at Ryerson with another and feel like we're building some momentum with the Frosty Mug coming next Thursday. It's so tight in our division that we just have to keep winning. Tonight was a total team effort towards that goal of building momentum." – head coach Shawn Camp
 
The Record
Guelph is 9-10-0-3.
 
Next up
Frosty Mug v Laurier, Thursday, Jan. 24, 7 pm @ Sleeman Centre