TORONTO, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team had a much-needed offensive breakout. And it was both a new face and a veteran who acted as the catalysts. Ryan Valentini and Cody Thompson had two goals each to help Guelph take down the No. 6 Ryerson Rams 6-2 at the Mattamy Centre on Saturday night.
 
Valentini, a rookie from Mississauga, ON who played last season with the OHL's Sudbury Wolves, was a standout in notching his first two goals as a Gryphon. He opened the scoring on a pretty play in the first period, the first of four straight from the visitors, and then added a critical goal in the final minute of the second period to stop Ryerson's momentum. The hosts got goals from Ryan Fellows and Matt Mistele 30 seconds apart to cut the Guelph lead down to 4-2 but Valentini responded by cruising into the Ryerson zone and wiring a low shot past Taylor Dupuis.
 
Thompson (3 points) would add his second of the night early in the third period when he one-timed a shot from the slot for a commanding 6-2 lead. The fourth-year Mississauga native stretched Guelph's margin to 4-0 as he buried a Scott Simmonds pass behind Dupuis just 2:18 into the second period. Thompson leads the team with 9 goals.
 
Simmonds and Stephen Hiff also scored for Guelph, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Goaltender Andrew Masters looked good in making 26 saves. One of his best came on an early Ryerson power play when Daniel Poliziani got loose but Masters coolly denied the forward's backhand attempt that would have opened the scoring.
 
Guelph manufactured a fantastic opening road period, scoring three times during an impressive five-minute stretch. It began with a solid penalty kill on a Rams' man advantage and the visitors took over from there. Valentini flashed his immense skill, skating into the zone and cruising to the left circle, where he roofed a shot into the far corner using bodies in front to screen Ryerson goalie Garrett Forrest at the 8:32 mark.
 
Simmonds made it 2-0 shortly after that, winning a faceoff and then getting to the net to bat the rebound from Thompson's shot past Forrest. Hiff scored Guelph's third when he went hard to the net and deposited a pretty feed from Tryg Strand, which chased Forrest in favour of the Rams' regular starter Dupuis.
 
Guelph had 32 shots on net to 28 for the Rams, who suffered their fourth consecutive loss.

 
Gryphon Take
"One of our goals was to have a good first period. We had a great start and it ws so critical. We're getting some guys back in the lineup. The first half of the season, we were so banged up. It made a big difference to have some bodies back. Hopefully in the second half, we'll start to see our depth."

"We had some excellent performances. Ryan adds such an element of skill to our lineup. He's smart, makes great decisions with the puck and has a great shot. Cody played well all weekend. He probably deserved better last night so it was great to see him rewarded. Andrew made very timely saves and gave the team a ton of confidence. He's worked so hard this year. Tonight's game showed that we hopefully won't miss a beat in net." – head coach Shawn Camp

 
The Record
Guelph is 7-9-0-2

 
Next up
York, Thursday, Jan. 10, 7:30 pm @ Gryphon Centre Arena