GUELPH, Ont. – The Gryphons men's hockey team will face a winner-take-all Game 3 on Sunday night (Feb. 22) in Waterloo in their opening round series of the 2025-26 OUA playoffs. Saturday night at the University of Guelph's Gryphon Centre Arena, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks skated to a 6-3 win over the Gryphons in Game 2 of best-of-three series between the OUA West Division rivals. The series will now be decided on Sunday night (6:30pm puck drop), with the series shifting back to Waterloo. 
 
Just like in Game 1, it would be the Golden Hawks who got on the board in the opening period with a goal from Ty Petrou to put the visitors up 1-0. The Game 1 script continued to play itself out when Nolan Dann scored 2:31 into the 2nd period to tie it up at 1-1. The goal was Dann's second in back-to-back playoff games. However, it would be the Golden Hawks this time who would score the next two goals to take a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play. Guelph opened the 3rd period with a fast start when Jack Wismer found Ethan Doyle on the 2-on-1 as Doyle scored to trim the deficit down to one, 1:16 into the final period. Guelph would equalize just over three minutes later when Duncan Penman's quick release from the blueline found the back of the net to tie up the game to fire up the Gryphon Centre Arena crowd. But the Golden Hawks would retake the lead when Travis Verbeek dropped the pass back to Lucas Chard who scored his second of the game to give the visitors a 4-3 lead. With Guelph pressing for the tying goal with the empty net, Laurier scored twice into the empty net to clinch the 6-3 Game 2 win.
 
The winner of Sunday night's decisive Game 3 will advance to the OUA quarterfinals. Puck drop from the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex is scheduled for 6:30pm with the game broadcast live online at oua.tv.