Box Score Guelph, ON – This is going to be one heck of a playoff matchup. On Saturday night at the Gryphon Centre, the Gryphons men's hockey team won 5-4 over the Waterloo Warriors in what was the regular season finale for both teams. With the win, the Gryphons end the season with an 11-13-3 record and finish sixth in the OUA's West Division. The Warriors fall to 17-8-2 and finish third in the OUA's West Division standings. That means these two teams will be seeing plenty of each other in the coming week, as they will square off in a best-of-three series in the opening round of the OUA playoffs.
In Saturday's game, the Warriors jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. The second period would prove to be a different story however, as the Gryphons got on the board less than two minutes in thanks to a goal from second year man Robert De Fulviis. De Fulviis, who recorded a hat trick in a 5-2 win over Western on Thursday (Feb. 5), would score his second of the night and fifth in two games later in the period to tie the game at 2-2. De Fulviis finishes the regular season as the Gryphons leading goal scorer with 14 goals in 26 games played. With four minutes remaining in the second period, Guelph's rookie goalie Andrew D'Agostini would absolutely rob Warriors forward Brett Mackie. With Waterloo breaking in on a two-on-one, the pass would find Mackie's stick, his one-timer seemed destined for the back of the net, but D'Agostini at full stretch would somehow get a pad on it to keep it out. Late in the period, Kyle Neuber would one-time home his eighth of the season to make it 3-2 Gryphons heading to the final period. Neuber finished the night with a goal and two assists.
A wild third period would start with the Warriors tying the game at 3-3 just 31 seconds in. After Jordan Mock made it 4-3 Guelph, the Warriors would answer back 62 seconds later to even it at 4-4. Near the mid-way point of the third period, the Gryphons would take the lead for the third time on the night as Carlos Amestoy (Toronto, ON) would fire a quick shot home to make it 5-4 Guelph. Amestoy, who also tallied three assists in the game, finished with a four-point night and rides a nine-game point streak into the postseason. The question was, could the Gryphons hold on this time?
With two minutes remaining in regulation, Warriors rookie forward Joel Hoekstra (Kitchener, ON) would be sent in all alone, but would fire wide. The Warriors would continue to throw everything they had at the net in the closing moments. A combination of some near misses and timely goaltending from D'Agostini would allow the Gryphons to hold on and come out on top of a wild 5-4 victory. Aside from scoring a pair of goals, De Fulviis also assisted on Amestoy's game-winner to finish with three points. D'Agostini made 26 saves for the win.
Note: Prior to the game, four graduating players were honoured on 'Senior Night' - players from left-to-right: Nick Huard, Michael Charbonneau (grey suit), Jordan Mock, Dan Broussard
The Gryphons and Warriors will start their best-of-three OUA quarterfinal playoff series on Wednesday, Feb. 11th at 7:30pm at the Columbia Icefields Arena. Game 2 of the series will be held on Saturday, February 14th at 7:30pm at the Gryphon Centre. If necessary, Game 3 would be held in Waterloo on Sunday, February 15th back at the Columbia Icefields Arena.
