GUELPH, Ont. - Making the Sleeman Centre their home in the first ever "Fall Faceoff", the No. 2-nationally ranked Guelph Gryphons and the No. 8-nationally ranked Western Mustangs put on a CHL worthy performance Thursday night. With no lead bigger than two goals for either team, the Mustangs managed to hang on in the end of the closely contested match for a 5-3 victory.
With excitement building pre-game in the home of the OHL's Guelph Storm, both teams came out ready for the stage and carried that same excitement on to the ice.
In the beginning, it was the U SPORTS defending champion Gryphons who were able to get on the board first. Eleven minutes into the opening frame, and on the power play, it was Gabriele Underwood sitting on the doorstep when a loose puck found her stick and she fired it into the open net. 
Holding their 1-0 advantage for most of the first period, the Gryphons continued to throw pucks at the Western net, but unfortunately, it was the Mustangs who were able to find the next goal. With a little under three minutes to play in the opening frame, Kira Memet deflected a shot which then just trickled past Gryphon's goalie Aurore Beaulieu to tie the game heading into the first intermission.
Throughout most of the second period the two teams continued to exchange chances with neither team being able to take the lead. That was until a furious couple of minutes hit. With 5:13 remaining in the period, it was the Mustangs taking their first lead of the game on a power-play goal. Western then struck again just over a minute later to make it 3-1. 
However, the Gryphons showed their resiliency only twelve seconds after the Mustangs goal. In a similar style to their first goal, the Gryphons crashed the crease again, this time with Mayla Mayer sliding the puck home off a rebound. The score then held 3-2 in favour of Western heading into the third.
After the final frame began, it didn't take Western very long to restore their two-goal advantage. It was just 22 seconds into the period when the Mustangs made it 4-2. Again though, down by two the Gryphons continued to show their character and got themselves back within a goal. For the third time in the contest, Guelph again sent a shot towards the goal, and after it bounced around the crease, Kristen Jay was able to bury it trimming the visitors lead to 4-3. However, that would be as close as the Gryphons would get as Sydnee Baker scored a beautiful goal for Western late in the game to cement the 5-3 win.
"We're a young team, and our young players are learning and our veteran players are leading them," said head Coach
Rachel Flanagan.
"I thought tonight, every time we got momentum we lost it again so we just need to be a little more consistent in how we are playing. There are some little things that we are still working on and it is going to be a lot of coaching this year and getting players to be confident in way they are playing."
"We keep reminding the players that the bar is really high for this team, and it should be high," she said. "It would be unfair for us to set it any lower just because we have a young group. Like are said, our veteran group is doing a good job to lead our youngsters, and we'll just keep working."
In the defeat, the Gryphons outshot the Mustangs 31-24. With the man-advantage, Guelph finished 2 for 7, while Western went 2 for 4.
These two teams will meet again Saturday in London when they finish off the back-end of a home-and-home series.
