LONDON, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team opened up their 2022-23 regular season Friday night, taking on the Western Mustangs at Thompson Arena in London. The Gryphons grew very familiar with the Mustangs last season as they were in the same five-team division for the COVID modified 2021-22 season. It was an even matchup between the two teams for most of their meetings last year, with the Mustangs taking 3 of 5 games against the Gryphons. Friday night's game showed a lot of the familiarity with an extremely tight battle that needed overtime to come up with a winner. Zach Poirier scored two goals in his first game back as a Gryphon in two years, while three different Gryphons scored their first career goals.
Nolan DeGurse was the overtime hero scoring his first goal as a Gryphon to lift the team to a thrilling 6-5 win over the Mustangs.
Western jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and the Gryphons didn't respond until late in the first period when newly appointed assistant captain, Zach Poirier jumped on a turnover in the neutral zone. He rushed in on a 2-on-1 to get a shot on net, and he would convert his own rebound to cut the Mustangs' lead in half heading into the second period.
The second period opened up with the teams exchanging two quick goals before the 17 minute mark, including
Anthony Tabak's first goal as a Gryphon, assisted by Nolan Degurse who also picked up his first point as a Gryphon on the play. Shortly after,
Duncan Penman would bring the Gryphons back to even with a point shot through traffic. However, the Mustangs would add one more goal before intermission, putting the Gryphons down 4-3 heading into the third period.
The third period brought even more back-and-forth play. Zach Poirier buried his second goal of the game off a beautiful back door pass from Nate Allensen to once again even the score, and then
Tristan de Jong found a hole through traffic for his first OUA goal giving the Gryphons their first lead of the game. Their lead would be short-lived as Western converted on a late power play to tie the game and force overtime.
The Gryphons began the overtime period on the penalty kill but were able to shut down the Mustangs' powerplay. Soon after the Gryphons returned to even strength, first year player
Nolan DeGurse got the puck on the boards in the Western end. He would wheel around the entire offensive zone, protecting the puck, until he was able to get his weight behind a back hand that sailed over the short side shoulder of the Western goaltender, winning the game for the Gryphons.
The overtime win starts the Gryphons' season off at 1-0 and gives them some momentum heading into Saturday night's home opener. They will be taking on the Waterloo Warriors at 7:30pm back home at the Gryphon Centre Arena.
