GUELPH, Ont. - The University of Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team returned to the ice at the Gryphon Centre on Friday (Jan. 6) for the first time of the new year in an afternoon match against the Western Mustangs. The Gryphons were looking to take a 7-point lead over the Mustangs in the OUA's West Division where they sat in 3rd place with a record of 7-3-4. It was Guelph's first action in 34 days with their last game being a 2-0 loss suffered at the hands of the Nipissing Lakers back on December 3rd. The Gryphons improved to 3-0 on the season against the Mustangs and picked up their 8th win of the season with a 3-0 shutout win. The two teams previous matches came on December 1st and November 4th, with the Gryphons taking both games 3-2 and 4-0.
The opening period showed the Gryphons time away from the ice as they would give the visiting Mustangs two early chances on the power play. Fortunately, the OUA's 3rd ranked penalty killing unit, which has limited teams to just 94.3% and 3 total goals on the season, would look in mid-season form limiting shot attempts and scoring chances. In addition to their penalty kill, standout goaltender
Martina Fedel would turn away 7 shots and send Western to into the lockeroom empty handed after 20 minutes.
Fedel would stop all 21 Mustang shots to earn her 3rd shutout of the 2022-23 season and 8th of her career.
Despite outshooting the visiting team 9-7 the Gryphons would also head into the first intermission scoreless in a 0-0 game.
The second period proved to be much different that the first, with the Gryphons dominating the game both on the ice and the stat sheet. Guelph would outshoot the Mustangs 9-1 in and earn two chances on the power play for their efforts. The Mustangs would kill off their first penalty of the period but with momentum clearly on the side of the home team the Gryphons would keep the puck in the Western end for the majority of the second frame. During the second Mustang penalty just over 13 minutes into the period,
Chihiro Suzuki would get a pass across the blue line from
Meaghan Chittick and give the Gryphons the lead after she picked the corner of the Western net with a wrist shot from the point. For the remaining six and a half minutes of the period the home team would continue to control the possession game and into the locker room with a 1-0 lead.
It took just over six minutes into the third period for the Gryphons to double their lead. Gryphon captain
Hannah Tait would win a faceoff in the Mustang zone which would find the stick of
Tori Verbeek who would fire a quick wrist shot and beat Western goaltender Kaitlyn Booth five-hole for her team-high 5th of the season and make it a 2-0 game. Despite taking two more penalties in the third the Gryphons would continue to control the game at even strength. With just under three minutes remaining
Brielle Caruso would find
Maeve Sutherland-Case in the neutral zone who would ross the blue line and fire a shot from the faceoff circle beating the Western goalie over the shoulder to solidify the Gryphons 8th win of the 2022-23 season.
With the win/loss the Gryphons move to 8-3-4 on the season and will look to
make it two in a row to open 2023
when they head to Toronto to take on the TMU Bold tomorrow afternoon (Jan. 7). Puck drop at the Mattamy Home Ice Arena is set for 1:15pm and can be seen live, online at
www.oua.tv.
