GUELPH, Ont. - Trailing by a pair of goals after two periods of the play, the Guelph Gryphons showed they still had plenty left in the tank for the final twenty minutes. In the third period Wednesday night at the Gryphon Centre, the Gryphons offence erupted for six goals en route to a 7-3 victory over the Ryerson Rams.
Playing just their second game in their true home rink having played their "Fall Face-off" game at the Sleeman Centre, the Gryphons saved the best for last in Wednesday night's contest, giving their fans plenty of third period fireworks before sending the home faithful home happy.
In the early stages of the game it seemed both teams were wanting to get a feel for each other. However, late in the opening frame a bad bounce would put the Gryphons behind in the dying stages of the period. With only 14 seconds remaining in the first, a loose puck bounced off a Gryphon's defender and below their goal line, where Brooklyn Gammill quickly back-handed the puck out front and off of Gryphon's goalie Aurore Beaulieu's back and into the net giving the Rams a 1-0 advantage after one period of play.
Once the second period rolled around, it barely took Guelph any time at all to respond. Despite her team behind short-handed, Gryphon's forward Stephanie Gava stole the puck away in her own zone, and then came in alone on Ram's goalie Fanny Vigeant, beating her high blocker-side with a quick wrist-shot to tie the game 1-1. But, as the middle frame continued on, the Rams managed to get the lead back and in a big way. Scoring a pair of goals just 13 seconds a part, Ryerson quickly jumped out to a 3-1 advantage with just over ten minutes to play in the second period. Although they fell behind by two, the Gryphons kept their heads high for the remainder of the middle frame and put lots of pressure on the visitors, but were unable to get anything to show for it. That set the stages for one of the craziest third periods in Gryphons Women's Hockey.
Much like the end of the second, the Gryphons continued to pressure the Rams, but couldn't quite find that elusive second goal. However, that all changed 6:17 into the final frame. Just six seconds into a power-play, Lauren Ianni settled down a puck on top of the Ryerson crease and then fired it home to pull the Gryphons within one. Then with just over five minutes to play, the Rams took back-to-back body checking penalties giving the Gryphons a late 5-on-3, and Guelph made sure to capitalize. Holding the puck behind the net, Karli Shell then brought it out front and scored blocker side to make it 3-3. Once the Gryphs were able to tie the game, it seemed to open the flood gates. It was just a little over a minute later when Mayla Mayer snapped a shot off immediately after an offensive zone face-off which found the back of the net and the Gryphons found their first lead of the game. 33 Seconds after that, Shell broke down the left wing and fired her second goal of the game past Vigeant. Down by two, the Rams elected to pull their goalie in the late stages, but it only further helped the Guelph explosion. Hannah Tait brought the puck down main street into the Ryerson zone and found the back of the empty cage. Then finally, with 33 seconds to play, Gabriele Underwood scored her third goal in as many games to round out a 7-3 Gryphons win.
"We just kept coming and coming and coming and I think it tired (Ryerson) out heading into the third," said Gryphon's head coach Rachel Flanagan. "You never expect to come out and score six goals in the third period, I don't even know if we've ever done that before, but we're proud of how the girls responded."
"Sometimes you don't get the bounces in the third period like we did so you just have to keep working," she said. "Once they started going in though, the bench was so high that it was going to be hard for any team to play us at that point."
The Gryphons outshout the Rams 25-17 in the game, while going 3 for 8 on the power-play and Ryerson finishing 0 for 4.
With the victory, the Gryphons have now won two in a row, while improving their record to 3-2. They will now have a quick turnaround after a Thursday off-day and head to Toronto on Friday to take on the Varsity Blues.
"I think it's great that we are going to Toronto now," Flanagan said. "They are the only undefeated team in our league right now so going in on a high is really important. They are also really young, They have ten rookies as well, so it should be a really great match-up."
