GUELPH, Ont. – Playing in their second game in as many days, the Gryphons looked to make it back-to-back wins on Saturday as they returned home for an afternoon meeting with the Queen's Gaels. Coming off a 4-0 win over the Western Mustangs the Gryphons looked to improve to 4-1-1 but fell just short, losing in the shootout.
The Gryphons opened up the scoring with a fantastic goal from
Maeve Sutherland-Case who, after receiving the breakout pass from
Chihiro Suzuki, split a pair of Queen's defenders and beat the Gaels goaltender blocker-side for her first of the season. The Gryphon lead would not last long, however as Emma Michalicka would tie the game at 1-1 just over three minutes later.
The first period saw both teams with chances on the power play, but penalty killers and goaltending would hold steady, with the Gaels and Gryphons coming up empty with an extra skater (Guelph 0-for-3, Queen's 0-for-4).
The second frame would be a battle of the goaltenders with the teams being locked at 1 apiece after 40 minutes. Gryphon goaltender,
Kathryn Raymond would make 32 saves on the day as the Gaels would out-shoot the Gryphons 36-33. Raymond would stand on her head Saturday afternoon, routinely making big saves in the 3
rd period and overtime to keep the Gryphs in the game. The third period would see the most action of the game, with Queen's jumping out to a 3-1 lead after scoring back-to-back goals just 42 seconds apart at 6:56 and 7:38. The Gryphons would respond 22 seconds later as
Maeve Sutherland-Case would find
Vanessa Bueti open infront of the Gaels net to make it a 3-2 game. With just minutes remaining the Gryphons would take an untimely penalty, finding them down one goal and skate with 1:24 remaining in the game. With the game coming to a close
Hannah Tait would put in a tremendous short-handed effort to even the game at 3-3 with 56 seconds remaining.
Overtime would see the Gaels with great scoring chances, but Raymond would hold firm in the Gryphon net and send the game to a shootout tied at 3. The shootout would see Queen's Gaels goalkeeper, Vanessa Campeau, stop all three Gryphon attempts. One Gaels goal would be all that was needed as the Gryphons would fall 4-3 in the shootout.
The Gryphons (3-1-2) will look to rebound on Friday (Nov.11) when they are back at Gryphon centre Arena to take on the Windsor Lancers, with puck drop set for 7:30pm.
