March 5, 2016

Gryphons win 3-1 over Mustangs to force a decisive Game 3 on Sunday

GUELPH, ON – The Guelph Gryphons fought for their lives on Saturday night.

Guelph

Western

Final

Guelph

Western

Guelph

Western

Final

Guelph

Western

GUELPH, ON – The Guelph Gryphons fought for their lives on Saturday night.

And now they'll have to do it again on Sunday night. Their defence of the Queen's Cup depends on it. The Gryphs staved off elimination from the OUA West Final on Saturday night, coming back in the third period to beat the Western Mustangs 3-1 at the Gryphon Centre. The best-of-three playoff series is tied 1-1 and will be decided on Sunday night in London.

The Mustangs led 1-0 entering the final frame, but the Gryphs took command with a pair of quick goals. Captain Nick Trecapelli scored only 25 seconds after the face-off, and Lenny Fabbri gave Guelph the lead at 2:48, both on wrist shots for their first goals of the postseason.

"We just elevated our game a little bit," Trecapelli said of the team's fast start coming out of the dressing room.

"We weren't ready to end it tonight, so we kept pushing and fortunately that one went in. And then we got another one right after that – some good, timely goals."

"What a huge goal," said Gryphs head coach Shawn Camp. "We got a wind in our sails, and away we went from there. Nick jumped in the rush beautifully, and he made no mistake. Great goal."

Camp said he didn't have to say a lot to the team during the second intermission.

"They didn't need much motivation. They're the defending champs, and there's a lot of pride at stake. Western's a great team, and we knew that we'd need our best period of the series so far. That's what we got."

Seth Swenson added an empty-net tally with 45.7 seconds left to seal the victory.

Andrew D'Agostini gave up Western's only goal on its first shot of the game, but he stood on his head after that, making 23 saves for the win. Many of his stops were of the highlight-reel variety as the Mustangs fought desperately to tie the score in the third period.

"Dags played awesome for us," said Trecapelli, a fourth-year defenceman and a Guelph native. "He made big saves for us when we needed him, and that was huge."

Stephen Sanza opened the scoring for Western, only 1:23 after the opening face-off. D'Agostini said after the game that he'd like to have that one back.

"It's never the way you want to start a hockey game. It was a good shot," said the second-year netminder from Scarborough, ON. "But I'm glad that I could step up and shut them down for the rest of the game.

"Now we need to take a deep breath and just know that we're starting another game 0-0, and the winner is going to host the Queen's Cup."

If the Gryphs win on Sunday, they'll host the Queen's Cup next weekend against the UQTR Patriotes, a repeat of last year when Guelph blanked UQTR at home to capture its first title since 1997.

UQTR punched its ticket to this year's championship game by completing its sweep of the OUA East Final on Saturday night with a 6-3 win over Carleton. D'Agostini is looking forward to a potential rematch.

"We're a better team than we were last year," he said. "We were a character team last year, and that's what got us through. We've got character in this room, and a lot of talent. There's no reason we can't do it again.

"We've generated a lot of momentum over these playoffs, the same way we did in the second half of the year last year, which ultimately helped us to win the championship. We'll see what happens."

"We know (the Mustangs) are going to be going hard tomorrow, but it's the same for us. It's do or die for both teams," Trecapelli added. "We want to get back to the Queen's Cup, and they're the only team standing in our way right now."

Puck drop for Sunday's series finale in London is set for 7:30 p.m and will be televised live on Rogers TV in both the London and Guelph regions. The loser of Sunday night's Guelph/Western matchup will face Carleton in the OUA Bronze medal game which will carry with it huge implications. The winner of the Bronze medal game will earn the OUA's third and final berth into the CIS Championships in Halifax (March 17-20).