GUELPH, Ont. – On Thursday night (Oct. 3, 2024) the Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team took on the Windsor Lancers at the Gryphon Centre in their 2024-25 OUA regular season opener. In front of over 700 fans at the Gryphon Centre, the Gryphons (0-1-0) were able to erase a 3-0 deficit to tie the game up at 3-3, but the visiting Lancers would add a goal late in the 2nd period and another early in the 3rd to give Windsor the 5-3 win on the opening night of the OUA men's hockey season.
The Lancers were able to take the lead just over two minutes in the game when the puck innocently found the stick of Dominic Mufarreh. Later in the period, with the Gryphons unable to clear puck after winning the faceoff, the Lancers would double their lead as
Colton Incze would make the initial save but the rebound would fall to the stick of Ray Hamlin as he would score. The Lancers would add another to their lead when Aaron Shaw's point shot would nip the top left corner of the net as Windsor would score twice in a span of 1:12 to lead 3-0. Guelph would strike back 91 seconds later as
Ethan Doyle would get his stick onto the
Nathan Allensen point shot as he would tip it in to get the Gryphs on the board.
Early penalty trouble would deter the Gryphons early in the second period but they were able to fight the adversity and flip this game around.
With Guelph shorthanded, first-year forward
Dylan Hudon would provide a spark. Hudon would intercept the errant pass and break free as he beat Nathan Torchia low to get the hosts back within one. The Gryphs were not done there shorthanded, as they would add another :23 seconds later as they would take advantage of another giveaway from the Lancers. First-year forward
Nolan Dann would find
Luke Bignell crashing the net as he would score blocker side to tie up the game for the Gryphons.
With momentum on their side, penalty trouble would come back to bite the hosts late in the second period. When it looked like the Gryphons were going to head into the intermission all tied up, Matt McNamara's point shot fooled everyone and found the back of the net to give the visitors the 4-3 lead. The Lancers would add another on the Will Ennis goal early in the 3rd period to restore the two-goal lead.
The Gryphons would generate pressure on the Lancers net throughout the period but Nathan Torchia would stand tall stopping all 12 shots he saw in the 3rd. The hosts would pull
Colton Incze creating a 6-on-3 advantage late in the game with the two-man advantage with a great opportunity to score two to tie it up late but they were unable to solve Torchia as the Lancers would hold on for the win.
The Gryphons (0-1-0) will finish off the home-and-home with Lancers (1-0-0) as they will make the trip to Windsor for a Saturday puck drop at 7:30pm. Fans can catch the game online at
oua.tv.
