ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – The Gryphons men's hockey team continued their winning ways with a hard-fought 2-1 road win Saturday night in St. Catharines versus the Brock Badgers. Marc Stevens scored :44 seconds into the game and standout rookie Todd Winder scored the game-winner midway through the 2nd period to give the Gryphons their 11th win in their last 12 regular season games. Freshman goalie Andrew Masters impressed, making 39 saves for the win as the Gryphons improved to 13-4-1 on the season and remain atop the OUA West standings.
 
"Tonight was a great team win for us," said Gryphons head coach Shawn Camp, now in his 11th season in charge of the U of G men's hockey program. "We know that, going into the second half of the season here, we're going to have to find ways to win low-scoring games if we want to be prepared for the playoffs, and tonight the guys kept their composure against a tough Brock team that really were working hard. We received some great goaltending and killed off some big penalties late. It was a nice all around effort."
 
The Gryphons got off to a hot start Saturday night at the Seymour-Hannah Centre, with former Guelph Storm forward Marc Stevens opening the scoring less than a minute into the opening period. After centre Manny Gialedakis won the draw, a point shot from Josh McFadden was stopped, but Stevens would jump on the rebound for his 11th goal of the season.
 
Finding a way past Brock goalie Clint Windsor proved to be a tall task on Saturday for the Gryphons, with the Badgers' netminder making 39 saves on the night, several of which were highlight reel material. The Gryphons, who came out flying and outshot Brock 22-12 in the opening period, were unlucky not to have more than just a goal to show for their play early on. Included in the list of big-time saves by Brock's goalie was an acrobatic stop on Gryphons' captain Scott Simmonds midway through the 1st on a nicely set up backdoor play.
 
With the game tied 1-1 midway through the 2nd period, the Gryphons would get a spark from a familiar source in freshman forward Todd Winder. The Uxbridge native would add to his red-hot rookie campaign by cutting into the middle of the Brock defence before firing a shot through the five-hole of the Badger goalie to give the Gryphs a 2-1 lead. For Winder, it marked his ninth goal in his last nine games and gives him 13 on the season, moving him into a tie for 3rd amongst the top goal scorers in all of U SPORTS.
 
The Gryphons will next be in action on Thursday, Jan. 11 when they travel to Waterloo to face the Warriors (5-10-3). The Gryphons won 6-3 over Waterloo back on November 11 at the Gryphon Centre in their only previous meeting with the Warriors this season.