GUELPH, Ont. – Thursday night (March 6, 2025) at the Gryphon Centre, the Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team suffered a 3-2 loss to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in Game 1 of their best-of-three OUA semifinal series. The Gryphons had the lead in third period but two Varsity Blues power play goals in :58 seconds helped the visitors come away with the 1-0 series lead.

The Gryphons opened the scoring late in the first period when Myriam Parnell entered the offensive zone and made a splendid pass to Deija Houston who wired the game's opening goal top shelf to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. The back-and-forth game between these two sides carried over into the second period. Guelph took their first penalty of the night just past the midway point of the period and Toronto took advantage as Emma Irwin scored to tie the game up. Just over two minutes later at the 15:30 mark of the second, Brielle Caruso used the boards to her advantage as her pass found the stick of Jaime Magoffin as she shot it over Toronto goalie Lyla McKinnon to put the hosts back in front 2-1.

The third period would see the tide of Game 1 shift. At the 6:30 mark of the third with the Varsity Blues on the power play, Sophie Grawbarger was able to get a deflection on the shot as the puck found its way in to draw the visitors level. The Gryphons would take another penalty moments after the goal and :58 seconds after tying it up, Toronto took the lead as Taylor Delahey just got her shot past the sprawling Martina Fedel to give her team a 3-2 lead. Martina Fedel made two big saves late in the period to keep the scoreline where it was as the Gryphons pushed for the equalizer late in the game but were unable to get it as they would drop the opening game of the series by a final score of 3-2.

The series will now shift to Toronto for Game 2 on Saturday afternoon with the Gryphons facing elimination, trailing this best-of-three series 1-0. Puck drop from Varsity Arena is scheduled for 4pm. If Game 3 is necessary, the series will shift back to Guelph for Sunday night (March 9) with puck drop scheduled for 7:30pm at the Gryphon Centre. Both games of this series can be seen live online at oua.tv.