GUELPH, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team took the ice on Thursday night (Feb. 9) for the 6th edition of the annual 'Aggies Night' game, hosting the Brock Badgers and playing in front of a record 1,067 fans. The game also served as the Gryphons final home game of the regular season and a game that, with a loss, could eliminate the U of G men from a chance at the OUA playoffs. In a back-and-forth affair the Gryphons came out on top 4-3 thanks to an incredible overtime and shootout performance from goaltender
Colton Incze.
The Gryphons could not have gotten off to a better start in their potential elimination game.
Just a few minutes after being honoured in the pre-game, senior
Cameron Searles out-skated a pair of Badger defenseman and scored his 2nd of the season in his final home game as a Gryphon. Searles' goal was assisted by another senior in
Cole Cameron. Cameron, a food and agricultural business student, received an ovation from his Aggie classmates when announced in the starting lineup and proceeded to come up with the primary assist on the games' opening goal.
The festivities were short-lived as just over six minutes later the Badgers tied the game on the man-advantage. The visiting team took advantage of their new-found momentum and claimed the lead minutes later. Despite a late penalty, the Gryphons went into the locker room trailing by one after 20 minutes.
The 2nd period saw the Badgers control play and possession for most of the opening minutes but a penalty just past the midway point would give the Gryphons their best chance to tie the game. The U of G power play would come up empty on the advantage and miss on another opportunity a few minutes later. After some post-whistle extracurriculars the second period would end with the Brock lead intact.
The final frame of regulation saw the Gryphons come out onto the ice at the Gryphons Centre on a mission.
Just past the five-minute mark of the period, Zach Poirier found the rebound off a
Ted Nichol shot and flicked the puck up and over the pad of the Badger goaltender for his 9th goal of the campaign. After assisting on Poirier's goal, Nichol got in on the scoring action at 14:22 when he found a rebound and sent a backhanded shot into the back of the net to reclaim the Gryphon lead. With less than 2 minutes remaining a Badger goal sent the game to overtime.
Overtime saw both the Gryphons and Badgers with quality scoring chances, but both Brock netminder Roman Rasran and Guelph goalie
Colton Incze came up with huge saves for their respective teams. By the end of the night
Colton Incze, who had won his previous two starts, stopped 34 of 37 shots faced to keep the Gryphon playoff hopes alive. Incze put on his best performance in the shootout, where he stopped all three Brock chances to give
Jacob Winterton the game-winning shootout goal.
After their win over the Badgers and a Western Mustang loss to the Laurier Golden Hawks on Thursday night the Gryphons remain alive and well in the OUA playoff race with just one game remaining in the regular season. The U of G men's hockey team now finds themselves in a three-way tie at 25 points with the Mustangs and Golden Hawks for the 6th and final playoff spot. Now the Gryphons will need to close out the regular season with a win against the York Lions and hope for a pair of Western and Laurier losses to make the playoffs. The game against the Lions is set for 7:15pm in Toronto and can be seen live, online at
www.oua.tv.
