Sixth annual event features big crowd, big win for Guelph
Hosting the sixth annual Frosty Mug on Jan. 16, the Guelph Gryphons welcomed the Brock Badgers for what would be nothing but an exciting match-up in front of a large Sleeman Centre crowd.
The night began on an international level, however, as current Guelph Storm forward, St. Louis Blues prospect, and 2015 World Junior gold medalist, Robby Fabbri, took to the ice for a ceremonial puck drop. Gryphon Len Fabbri, Robby’s older brother, was called to centre ice to partake in the pre-ice presentation alongside the Badgers’ captain. It was a fitting moment as Robby was featured praising his older brother Len, illustrating his biggest influence to date in a TSN segment that aired during coverage of the World Junior Championship this past December.
Getting to the contest, it didn’t take long for things to get interesting. Merely 1:10 into the game, the Badgers found themselves ahead by two-goals, almost completely deflating the record home crowd of 3,226.
Jordan Gignac of Brock opened the scoring at the 44-second mark, only to be followed up 26 seconds later by Greg Jambrosich capitalizing on a rare two-on-none rush into the Gryphons zone.
Just over three minutes later, the Gryphons hopped into the game with Teal Burns burying his sixth of the season as captain Daniel Broussard orchestrated a two-on-one rush, setting up Burns for the goal. MacKenzie Nichol, a former Guelph Storm defenseman, excelled playing back at the Sleeman Centre, notching his first of three assists on the opening tally for the Gryphons.
Following up the effort, Nichol got in on the action for Guelph’s second goal of the game at the 7:05 mark of the period. The Listowel, Ontario native would feed Scott Simmonds who made no mistake to knot the game up at two.
With a total of four goals scored in the opening 10 minutes of the game, both the Gryphons and the Badgers tightened up to close out the second-half of the period still tied at two-a-piece. Guelph outshot Brock 15-11 after 20 minutes.
Both teams came out of the gates in the middle frame no differently than in the first, with either side pocketing an early marker to make it a 3-3 game just three minutes into the period.
The Badgers struck first at the 2:13 mark with Taylor Fielding finding the back of the net with a hard point shot for his second point of the game, and a 3-2 lead.
A lead, however, that would be short-lived as Carlos Amestroy beat the Badgers’ Adrian Volpe to once again make it a tie contest merely 47 seconds later. Nichol would be at it again, hitting his total of three assists on the night – a point total earning him second star recognition in his old junior arena.
Later in the frame, despite Gryphon Robert De Fulviis scoring a go-ahead marker, the Gryphons would be called for too-many-men, resulting in a no-goal call and a 3-3 tie heading into the final period of play.
Just over four minutes into the third, it would be Nicklas Huard giving the home crowd something to cheer about as he wired a wrist shot that would beat Volpe’s glove.
Following the theme of the contest, the Badgers responded quickly with a tying marker at the 6:30 mark of the period. Brock’s Dan MacEachern would take advantage of a screened Andrew D’Agostini to make it a tie game for the third time on the night.
That would be the last time, though, as the Gryphons would go on to score two more goals in the third for a 6-4 victory.
The momentum shift came noticeably with Guelph controlling the pace of the game for large portions of the third, forcing Brock to lose out on the battles down low and in the corners. With that came Michael Hasson – standing at 6’2” and 200-pounds – who would set up Steven Strong for the game winner. Strong, a defenceman, put a top-shelf wrist shot through, giving the Gryphons a 5-4 lead with just over eight minutes remaining in the game.
Insert former Peterborough Pete and current Gryphon goaltender, D’Agostini, here. D’Agostini would come up with his biggest and best saves of the night in the second-half of the third to keep the team in front of him ahead by one. The netminder’s most significant stretch came against Sammy Banga of the Badgers, who was in alone with an opportunity to tie things up once again. D’Agostini turned away the Brock’s leading scorer, and eventually hanging on for the win.
With 26 saves on the game, D’Agostini raised $26 for Cystic Fibrosis through Saves for CF, a community initiative that has Guelph’s Frank & Steins donate $1 for every save a Gryphon goaltender makes for the duration of the 2014-15 season.
Jordan Mock would net the empty netter with 32 seconds left in the game to solidify the 6-4 Gryphons victory.
With the win, the Gryphons moved into a tie with the Toronto Varsity Blues for the final playoff spot in the OUA’s West Division, and improve their record in the Frosty Mug to 4-2-0.