The Guelph Gryphons dropped a 3-2 shootout final to the York Lions on Saturday at the Canlan Ice Sports.

Both teams struggled to find their legs until late in the first, when the Gryphons (9-3-1) began to show some urgency to their game and put together a few solid scoring chances.

Both teams would find their legs and the scoreboard in the second period.

The Gryphons were first on the board courtesy of a goal by Jenna Lanzarotta (Mississauga, Ont.). Dayna Kanis (Georgetown, Ont.) found an open Lanzarotta in front of the Lions goal with a nice feed from behind the net, and Lanzarotta beat McMurter five hole.

York found an equalizing goal only minutes after Lanzarotta's tally. Courtney Unruh (Fort St. John, B.C.) found a wide-open Tollis (Ancaster, Ont.) in front of the Gryphons goal with a beautiful tape-to-tape pass that Tollis redirected over the blocker of a flailing Brooke Siddall (Windsor, Ont.) to tie the game at ones.

The Gryphons responded to the Lions' equalizer with a few solid scoring chances of their own, but McMurter shut the door, stopping all shots against for the remainder of the period.

Building off McMurter's strong play, the Lions were able to find a go-ahead goal before the end of the period. Katie Ippolito (Richmond Hill, Ont.) stormed into the Gryphons' zone all alone on a breakaway and fired a heavy wrist shot up and over Siddall's glove, which gave the Lions a 2-1 lead heading into the intermission.

In the third period, the Lions got into some early penalty trouble and allowed the Gryphons to generate some momentum. Building off that momentum, the Gryphons found an equalizer midway through the period when several Gryphons players crashed the Lions goal on a rebound opportunity, and Kaitlyn Mora (Guelph, Ont.) shoveled the bouncing puck home past McMurter to tie the game 2-2.

Neither team was able to find a game winning goal before the end of regulation, so overtime was needed.

In overtime, the Gryphons thought they had won the game with a goal in the dying seconds, but the referees had called a delayed penalty on Kanis, so the goal was disallowed. The remaining seconds of overtime solved nothing, sending the game to a deciding shootout.

The Lions came out on top in the shootout with goals from Tollis and Unruh. McMurter stopped both Gryphons' shooters, Jessica Zerafa (Mississauga, Ont.) and Mora.

The Gryphons are back in action tomorrow in Toronto against the Varsity Blues.  Game time is at 4PM.

Soucre: York Sports Information