GUELPH, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team enters the 2018-19 playoffs as the top seed in the OUA. Wednesday night in their playoff opener, they looked every bit the part of a top seed..
 
Wednesday night at the Gryphon Centre Arena, the Guelph Gryphons picked up convincing 5-0 victory over the No. 8-seeded Brock Badgers. Veteran forwards Claire Merrick (2 goals, 1 assist) and Kaitlin Lowy (1 goal, 2 assists) both registered three-point nights, while All-Canadian goalie Valerie Lamenta recorded a 17-save shutout. The Gryphons, who led 1-0 after 1 and 4-0 after 2 periods of play, scored twice on the power play and killed off six Brock power play opportunities on the night.
 
Guelph would open the scoring midway through the 1st period when Merrick finished off some tic-tac-toe passing on the power play to give the Gryphons a 1-0 lead. Just over a minute into the 2nd period, captain Kaitlin Lowy would extend the Gryphon lead to 2-0, roofing a shot past Brock goalie Jensen Murphy. Just over five minutes later, the Gryphons would add another when a point shot deflected off the skate of Kristen Jay and in to make it a 3-0 game. A power play goal from rookie Lauren Ianni at the 12:24 mark would cap a dominant 2nd period for the No. 7-nationally ranked Gryphons, who would take a commanding 4-0 lead into the 3rd.
 
With just under five minutes remaining in regulation, the Gryphons would add one more. From behind the net, Kaitlin Lowy would feather a perfect pass to Claire Merrick in the slot who would fire home her second of the night to push the U of G lead to 5-0, marking the end of the night for Badgers goalie Jensen Murphy.
 
The best-of-three series will now shift to St. Catharines Friday night (Feb. 22), where the Gryphons will look to complete the sweep and book a spot in the OUA semi-finals. Puck drop on Friday is set for 7:15pm and can be seen live online at oua.tv. 
 
Gryphon Take 
"Full credit to our players for executing the game plan really well tonight. Our 'D' group put together one of their stronger performances of the season and our special teams were excellent." – Gryphon head coach Rachel Flanagan
 
 
The Series
Game 1:  Guelph 5 – Brock 0
Game 2:  Friday, Feb. 22 @ Brock (7:15pm)
Game 3 (if necessary):  Sunday, Feb. 24 @ Guelph (2pm)