GUELPH, Ont. – On Wednesday night (Jan. 18) the U SPORTS No. 10-ranked Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team looked to pick up their 12
th win of the 2022-23 season as they played host to the TMU Bold. The Gryphons entered Wednesday's game 3
rd in the OUA's West Division, just one point back of the 2nd-place Windsor Lancers and two points behind the division-leading Waterloo Warriors. The Gryphons would take a 3-2 overtime win after a hard-fought game and climb into 2nd-place in the OUA West.
The opening period at the Gryphon Centre saw a strong performance from the home team, with the Gryphons receiving an opportunity on the powerplay early in the period. Just under three minutes into the game the home team would see their best chance to open the scoring in front of the Gryphon faithful in attendance.
Despite not finding the back of the net the Gryphons were able to utilize the 2-minute advantage to keep the pressure on the visiting Bold. The Gryphons would be rewarded for their efforts late in the period as rookie
Skylar Brown would intercept a TMU pass through the neutral zone and find a streaking
Jaime Magoffin who would beat the visiting goaltender blocker-side for her 5th goal of the year, while Brown would pick up her first OUA point with the assist.
The second frame saw the Gryphons came out of the locker room in firm control of the momentum, winning the possession battle and keeping the puck in the offensive zone for the majority of the period. They also forced four TMU penalties in the second period, ensuring that the visiting team played on their back foot. Despite the Bold tying the game with four minutes remaining in the period they would allow the Gryphons a chance to regain the lead, taking a penalty just 30 seconds after their goal. On the powerplay,
Avery Peer would send the puck to
Rylee Davison who, after making a couple nice moves along the blue-line, would find some space and fire a point shot, retaking the Gryphon lead heading into the locker room for the second intermission.
The third period saw a much closer game to open the final frame. Just past six minutes the Gryphons would take a pair of penalties just 50 seconds apart to give the TMU Bold a 5-on-3 opportunity to tie the game. With the two-skater advantage the Bold would tie the game, despite there being some confusion surround the good-goal call. Following the game-tying goal the two teams would kick their game into high gear with limited time remaining. Despite excellent scoring chances at both ends of the ice the two teams would require overtime to decide who would be leaving the Gryphon Centre with the win.
In overtime the Gryphons returned to their first and second period form of controlling possession and limiting TMU chances around goaltender
Kathryn Raymond. Raymond would come up with a couple huge stops in overtime to add to her impressive performance Wednesday night. The Brampton native would pick up her 2nd win of the season while stopping 23 of 25 TMU shots in the win. With just under two minutes remaining in overtime
Jaime Magoffin would fire a shot wide of the Bold net that would find the stick of
Avery Peer. Peer would send a wrist shot off of the TMU goaltender and into the back of the net for her 3rd of the season.
The No. 10-ranked Gryphons (12-3-4) will look to pick up their 13
th win and take 1st-place in the OUA West standings on Saturday in Owen Sound when they take on the Waterloo Warriors
as part of Hockey Day in Canada. Puck drop is set for 2:30pm at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre and fans unable to attend the game can watch it live, online at
www.oua.tv.
