CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team's dream of a first ever national title is alive and well. The No. 3-seeded Gryphons got off to an amazing start at the U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championship Friday afternoon with a massive 3-2 win over the defending champion Manitoba Bisons at the MacLauchlan Arena.
Rookie
Nicole MacKinnon scored the game-winning goal, sending the McCaw Cup holders to their first U SPORTS semi-final since 2016. Guelph will now face the No. 2-seeded Montreal Carabins, who defeated the host UPEI Panthers 3-0 to get through their quarter-final matchup.
After Alanna Sharman led a dramatic Bison comeback with two consecutive goals, MacKinnon struck for the first postseason marker of her young Gryphon career. Manitoba controlled the puck in its own zone but turned it over just outside the crease where the first-year Human Kinetics student from Mississauga, ON pounced and beat goaltender Lauren Taraschuk with a quick shot at 5:53 of the third period.
Val Lamenta tracks a puck in Guelph's U SPORTS QF
Head coach
Rachel Flanagan said that during the second intermission, MacKinnon told the team that she would get the goal.
"Someone said, 'Who's gonna get it?' and Nicole answered, 'I am,'" the coach recalled. "When she scored, the girls were yelling, 'Oh my god, she called it.'"
"It feels great," said MacKinnon, who was named Guelph's Player of the Game. "Taking down any team would feel good right now, but just the fact that they're the defending champions gave us that extra motivation.
"In the (OUA) McCaw Cup Finals, we were down going into the third and I think we learned that we could play from behind and we weren't even behind. We knew our team could do it and we were going to give it everything we had."
Captain
Kaitlin Lowy and
Sydney Davison also scored for the Gryphons, while OUA Goaltender of the Year
Valerie Lamenta made 21 saves for the win in between the pipes.
Manitoba made another push after MacKinnon got the go-ahead goal but Guelph absorbed it well. The Gryphons played some of their best hockey in the final five minutes of the third period, making it difficult for the Bisons to create any space or scoring opportunities. Manitoba was unable to get Taraschuk out of the net for an extra attacker until Guelph iced the puck with just 22 seconds left on the clock, leaving the defending U SPORTS champions with little time to find an equalizer.
"We've been in the situation a lot where we've been up by one and had to play those 6-on-5s but the girls were prepared for it," said the coach. "They blocked shots and really paid the price in the last couple minutes to not allow the entries and not allow them to have a lot of time on the puck. Both groups were a little bit tired by that point but we had the excitement of being up by one. And we had a pretty veteran group out there understanding how to play that situation. They really stepped up in that moment."
If the Gryphons' finish was solid, the start was spectacular. Flanagan talked about the team needing urgency from the onset of the tournament and the players absolutely took that to heart. Guelph got the dream start when Lowy banged a backhander past Taraschuk just 36 seconds into the game.
And the Gryphons displayed some killer instinct by jumping all over the national champions again. Davison corralled a puck in the slot and coolly dragged and slid it through the Manitoba goaltender for a shocking 2-0 lead with only 1:53 gone in the first period.
"We were focused," said Flanagan. "Those two early goals were not just great to get the lead but also really good for energy on the bench."
But the veteran Bisons didn't panic and they would get back into the game in the final minute of the period when Sharman got one past Lamenta. And Sharman would equalize early in the second period with a stunning goal. The Manitoba forward burst down the right wing and waited until the last second before roofing a shot over Lamenta's shoulder and just under the crossbar at the 1:02 mark.
"The end of the period where they got one in was tough," said Flanagan. "Those momentum goals in the last couple minutes of a period can be hard to come back from."
The Bisons had a chance to take a lead with two consecutive power-play opportunities but the Guelph penalty killers came up big, beginning with Lamenta, who made a few key saves during that important stretch.
Manitoba outshot the Gryphons 23-21.
