GUELPH, Ont. – It was just one of those nights Thursday at the Gryphon Centre. No matter what they tried to do, the Guelph Gryphons were unable to find any answers as they fell 5-1 to the visiting Waterloo Warriors.
Having their two-game winning streak snapped, it was not for a lack of opportunities or chances, as the Gryphons fired 33 shots on Waterloo goalie Julian Sime, who was equal to the task on all of them except for one late marker.
In a game that saw no shortage of penalty minutes, 128 to be exact, it was the Warriors finding the back of the net first, after withstanding heavy pressure from the Gryphons early on.
Tallying the first goal of the contest, 6'6 Dan Walker ripped a shot past Gryphon's netminder
Colton Incze midway through the opening frame to put Waterloo up by one. The big Warrior's forward almost scored a second shortly after. However, the ref had blown the play dead just prior to Walker knocking the puck in.
Trailing 1-0 after one period of play, the Gryphons managed to outshoot Waterloo 16-9 in the frame, but had nothing to show for it. In the middle period, the Gryphons again did their best to pressure the visitors but had all of their attempts snuffed out by Sime. Instead though, it was the Warriors doubling their lead when Nick Chyzowski found the back of the Guelph net. Waterloo then further added to their lead with a goal form Jake Heerspink, sending Waterloo into the second intermission with a 3-0 advantage.
Although the Gryphons were able to apply more pressure early in the third, again they were held off the scoreboard. Then as momentum switched, Waterloo netted two more goals, one from Tate Popple and one from Jacob Cascagnette, to go up 5-0.
With the clock winding down and tempers continuing to flare, the Gryphons found themselves on a 5-on-3 power-play late in the contest, and were able to take advantage, while also spoiling Sime's shutout bid. Receiving a slap-pass from
Matthew Timms,
Connor Bramwell sat in the slot and put home his fourth goal of the season. However, that is as close as Guelph would get.
On the power-play, the Gryphons finished the game 1 for 7, while the Warriors went 0 for 3.
Guelph went on to outshoot the Warriors 33-25 in the loss.
"The great news is we have a chance to play the same team again in 48 hours and have a chance to respond," said Gryphon's Head Coach
Shawn Camp. "We'll tip our hat to them. They competed hard, but at the end of the day, we need to bury our chances which we didn't do tonight. We fell behind and were stuck chasing the game all night."
Looking to flip the script, Guelph will head to Waterloo Saturday night for their third meeting of the season with the Warriors.
The Gryphs will then visit Laurier on Thursday to wrap up their schedule before the holiday break.
