LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – A memorable 2018-19 campaign for the Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team officially came to an end on Thursday afternoon in Lethbridge, Alberta.
The Gryphons, who entered the national championship tournament as the No. 4-seed in an eight-team field, suffered a 6-1 loss to the No. 5-seeded Saskatchewan Huskies in what served as the opening matchup of the 2019 U SPORTS Cavendish Farms University Cup. For the Gryphons, Thursday's U SPORTS quarter-final matchup marked the team's second trip to the national stage in a five-year span, and the team's 10th overall appearance at the national championship tournament in program history.
"We want to congratulate Dave Adolph and the Saskatchewan Huskies for the terrific game they played today," said Gryphons head coach
Shawn Camp.
"They were hard on the puck all game and their power play was the big difference today with three power play goals, which was something we just weren't able to overcome."
The Saskatchewan Huskies scored the first of those three power play goals 3:37 into the opening period and would tack on two more in the 2nd period to help take a commanding 4-1 lead heading to the 3rd. After a slow start to the game that saw the Gryphons trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes of play, the Gryphs would come out rejuvenated in the 2nd period, dominating stretches of play and outshooting the Huskies 14-8 in the period. At the 7:53 mark of the 2nd period, the Gryphons would get on the board with a goal from fifth-year team captain
Scott Simmonds who re-directed home a
Seth Swenson point shot to trim the Guelph deficit to 3-1.
The Huskies, who set a school-record with 25 wins during the regular season, would snatch the momentum right back, with a power play goal from Wyatt Johnson to restore the three-goal lead.
The Gryphons outshot the Huskies 32-27 in the game but had a difficult time solving Saskatchewan's Taran Kozun, who was named the U SPORTS Goalie of the Year on Wednesday night before turning away 31 of the 32 shots sent his way by the Gryphons on Thursday.
"As we get further away from today, we'll have better perspective on the season as a whole," added Gryphon head coach Shawn Camp. "We're extremely thankful for the large group of seniors we have on this roster, led by Simmer (Scott Simmonds), who has been the only three-year captain in our program's history.
The reason we have been able to make it to the national stage twice in the last five years is because of the type of leadership our players have taken on within our group. We're just very appreciative of everything our seniors have brought to this program, not only on the ice, but in the classroom and in the community as well. It obviously wasn't the result we were looking for, but our young guys will learn from this and hopefully we can get back here again next year."
For Simmonds, who caps a decorated five-year career with the Gryphons, being one of the final eight teams left standing (out of 35 men's hockey programs from across U SPORTS), is something that serves as a source of pride, "Getting to this point in the season is tough to do and is something we have to appreciate as a group. We've started to build a really strong culture here, which starts with our head coach and our assistant coaches who are out there recruiting character guys. It's been an amazing five years and I know that this program is going to have a lot of success going forward."
