GUELPH, Ont. - In what was an eventful contest Thursday night at the Gryphon Centre, that saw 11 goals scored in the first two periods, it was ultimately the Ryerson Rams coming away with the victory over the No. 7-ranked Guelph Gryphons on the team's 4th annual edition of "Aggies Night." Despite having Todd Winder record his first hat-trick of the season, the Rams were able to counter throughout the night en route to a 6-5 win.
Playing in front of an Aggies Night record-setting crowd of 775, the two teams put on an offensive showcase throughout the first two periods of play. With six goals scored in the 1st period and five more tallied in the 2nd, there was no shortage of twists and turns in the game.
With the boisterous home crowd behind them from the very beginning, the Gryphons came out flying.
Only 1:40 into the game, the Gryphons were able to get themselves on the board. Working the puck towards the Ryerson crease Marc Stevens was able to put the puck on goal and it wound up pin-balling past Ram's goalie Garrett Forrest. Then just under four minutes later Todd Winder broke in down the left-side on a 2-on-1, held the puck and fired a shot five-hole past Forrest to extend the Gryphon's lead to 2-0. However, prior to the midway point of the period the Rams were able to strike back trimming the Guelph advantage to 2-1. 
The lead quickly was restored to two goals though. Not even two minutes after the Ryerson goal, it was Winder again finding the back of the net for the home team. Set up on a perfect pass from Ryan Valentini, Winder went five-hole again making it 3-1 Gryphs. Unfortunately for Guelph, their lead would not see the first intermission. Two straight goals from the Rams had the contest tied 3-3 after 20 minutes of play.
After a six goal period, it would be easy to think that things may settle down a bit in the 2nd, however, that was not the case.
Just 48 seconds into the middle frame, Winder again took a feed from Valentini and found the back of the Ryerson goal to pick up his first hat-trick of the season. 
Again though, the Rams had an answer. Tying the game 4-4 less than three minutes after, the back and forth contest continued. Not even two minutes later the Gryphons were able to restore their lead again. Giordano Finoro put home his 3rd goal of the season to put Guelph up one. Sticking with the theme of the game, Ryerson was able to net the equalizer to make it 5-5, and then switched up the script by scoring another goal before the 2nd period expired giving the visitors their first lead of the contest and a 6-5 advantage after two periods of play.
Despite 11 goals being scored in the first 40-minutes, there were none left to be scored in the final 20 as the Rams left the Gryphon Centre with a 6-5 win.
"We played well enough to win, but we also played well enough to lose at times," said Gryphon's head coach Shawn Camp. 
"It was just that kind of game tonight."
With the Aggies Night recording setting crowd of 775, the passion from the crowd was certainly noticeably at ice level even in the loss.
"It's such a privilege to be a part of such a fun event," said Camp. "To have this kind of support from our Aggies students is unbelievable. We appreciate their support and their enthusiasm. It helped us through different shifts in the game tonight, for sure."
With four assists in the game, Valentini led all Gryphons in points.
Final shots in the game finished 39-28 Ryerson. The Rams also went 1/7 on the power-play, while the Gryphons did not receive a power-play opportunity.
The Gryphons will now wrap up the 2019 portion of their schedule with a pair of road games. Guelph will head to London on November 29 to take on the Western Mustangs before visiting the Windsor Lancers on November 30.
