Gryphons move into third in the OUA West with win over Golden Hawks

GUELPH, ON - A rare Tuesday night men's hockey game at the Gryphon Centre turned into one of the most memorable atmospheres of the season thanks to hundreds of first year students who showed up to support the Gryphons as part of the "Rez Floods the Rink" promotion. The lively home crowd was given plenty to cheer about as the Gryphons cooled off a red hot Laurier team with a 5-1 victory. With the win, the Gryphons improve to 14-11-0 on the season and move into third in the OUA West, while Laurier (12-12-0) had their win streak end at four games.

Cody Thompson led the Gryphon offence, scoring his ninth goal of the season on a wrister high over Laurier goaltender Vinny Merante's glove 4:37 into the first. The rookie Thompson, playing alongside Lenny Fabbri and Stephen Hiff, also added two assists, giving him nine goals and 10 assists on the season. Thompson's 19 points on the year are tied for the team lead alongside Rob De Fulviis, who missed Tuesday night's game due to injury.
 
Dylan Gilbert, Andres Kopstals, Kyle Neuber, and Robert Lepine also found the back of the net for the Gryphons, while Fabbri and Guelph's top-scoring blueliner, Nick Trecapelli, each added two assists.
 
In net for Guelph, Andrew D'Agostini was once again up to the task, turning aside 23 of 24 Laurier shots, including one coming off a Matt Dupont breakaway with Guelph up 1-0 in the first. The Golden Hawks had another great chance on the second of back-to-back power plays in the opening period, but D'Agostini made a flurry of saves to maintain Guelph's 1-0 lead. The second-year Scarborough, ON native ranks fourth in the OUA with an impressive Goals Against Average of just 2.41. D'Agostini has also been in net for 12 of the team's 14 victories this season and is sporting a .926 save percentage. 

After falling behind early in each of their last two games, a 5-4 comeback win in overtime against Brock and a 5-0 loss to Ryerson, Guelph was able to get off to a strong start this time around, scoring less than five minutes into the game and outshooting Laurier 9-2 midway through the first. The Gryphons outshot the Golden Hawks 32-24 on the night.
 
The Gryphons now have three games remaining in their regular season, all of which will be played on home ice. U of G will host Lakehead (6-14-4) on both Friday and Saturday nights at the Gryphon Centre, before closing out their schedule on Thursday, February 11 versus U of T.

Source: Guelph Gryphons