This article first appeared on RyersonRams.ca on Jan. 10, 2014.
GUELPH, Ont. – It came harder than it looked, but the Ryerson Rams escaped the Gryphons Centre Arena on Thursday night with a 3-2 overtime win over the Guelph Gryphons.
The win improves Ryerson’s record to 13-5-0 on the year and leaves them tied with the Lakehead Thunderwolves for first place in the OUA West with 26 points.
After a scoreless first period, the No. 10 nationally ranked Rams got on the board with just 57 seconds left in the second period as rookie forward Lucas Froese(Grunthal, Man.) put the puck past Guelph (8-7-3) starter Andrew Loverock.
Ryerson kept that momentum going to start the third period as sophomoreMichael Fine (Toronto) notched his sixth goal of the season on the powerplay to make it 2-0.
But after that the Rams got sloppy, and as head coach Graham Wise describes, his team took their foot off the pedal in the third period.
Thomas Kohler put the Gryphons on the score sheet with under five minutes left in the third and with just a 1:09 left in regulation, Nicklas Huard scored his team leading 12th goal of the season to tie to the game at two and send it to overtime.
In the extra frame it was CIS leading scorer Jamie Wise (Stouffville, Ont.) who sent the Rams back to Toronto victorious, scoring his 13th of the season at 3:05 of the overtime period. The goal was Wise’s second point of the night and he now has 33 points on the season, good for tops in Canada.
Troy Passingham (Mississauga, Ont.), starting in his fourth straight game, was impressive once again in net, making 26 saves for the win. The win improves Passingham’s record to 7-1 on the season and in three games so far in 2014 he has a .957 save percentage.
Loverock suffered the loss, allowing three goals on 20 shots.
The game turned into a chippy affair, especially in the overtime period with each team receiving a fighting major and a game misconduct. Overall, 62 penalty minutes were handed out.
Ryerson is back on home ice on Saturday afternoon for Hockey Day in Toronto when they host the Waterloo Warriors at 2:30 p.m. The last time the two teams met was Oct. 14, 2011 when Waterloo pounded Ryerson, 7-3.