Gryphons defeat Brock 4-1 in Steel Blade Championship Final

The Brock University men's hockey team (8-9-0-0) dropped a 4-1 decision to the the Guelph Gryphons (6-9-2-0) in the Championship Game of the Steel Blade Tournament.

The Gryphons gained entry into the Finals after defeating the Western Mustangs 8-5 on December 29.  Brock had won their last two meetings, however, Guelph had shown their offensive ability in the last two games.

The Badgers opened the scoring with a powerplay goal by Derek Brochu (Welland, Ont.).  Brochu batted in a rebound from a point shot from Eric Toonders (Winchester, Ont.), earning him the Brock Player of the Game.  Guelph knotted it up with an unassisted goal by Mike Kusy off a Brock turnover. 

Guelph dominated the play in the second period, only allowing one shot for Brock while attempting 20 shots in the period.  One shot rang off the post, seven were blocked by the Brock players, and eleven were saved by Brock goaltender Jordan Bent (St. George, NB).

The Gryphons' Patrick Campbell scored the game winning goal due to a missed coverage assignment by the Brock forward, earning him Guelph's player of the Game.  In the third period, Brock registered a few more shots, mostly from long range, but they couldn't get anything past Guelph goaltender Scott VanBommel. 

Guelph continued barraging the Brock net with pucks, recording 40 shots on net versus Brock's total of 24 shots.  Guelph also dominated in the faceoff circle, winning a combined 57.2% of faceoffs.  The Gryphons' Thomas Kiriakou scored off of a rebound to put the Gryphons ahead by two with 3:01 left in the third period and Geoff Guimond put the game away, netting an empty-netter to give the Gryphons a final score of 4-1.

Turnovers were Brock's tragic flaw of the game.  The Badgers surrendered the puck leading to the first two Guelph goals, as well as many other scoring chances throughout the game. 

Brock spent most of the game defending, unable to clear the puck or break out and make a positive offensive play.  When in Guelph's end, Brock took the majority of their shots from the point, posting only 7 of their 24 shots below the hash marks. 

Brock's next regular season home game will take place on January 8, 2010 against the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, 7:35 pm at the Seymour-Hannah Centre

Scoring Summary

First Period

13:45 Brock - Brochu (Toonders) PP

19:10 Guelph - Kusy (Unassisted)

Second Period

14:05 Guelph - Campbell (Unassisted)

Third Period

16:59 Guelph - Kiriakou (Oginski, Pawlowski)

18:25 Guelph - Guimond (Lillie, Priamo) EN