February 27, 2016

Fine's OT winner forces a deciding Game 3

TORONTO - With less than four minutes on the clock in a 1-1 Friday night overtime thriller between the Ryerson Rams and the Guelph Gryphons, Rams captain Michael Fine picked up a loose puck in his own zone. At the end of his shift, Fine found enough energy to exert one of the greatest solo efforts one will ever see, scoring an end to end beauty to lift the Rams to a 2-1-overtime victory in game two of the OUA West semi-finals.

Ryerson

Guelph

Final	1	2	3	OT	T
Ryerson	0	0	0	1	1
Guelph	0	0	1	0	1

Ryerson

Guelph

Final	1	2	3	OT	T
Ryerson	0	0	0	1	1
Guelph	0	0	1	0	1

TORONTO - With less than four minutes on the clock in a 1-1 Friday night overtime thriller between the Ryerson Rams and the Guelph Gryphons, Rams captain Michael Fine picked up a loose puck in his own zone. At the end of his shift, Fine found enough energy to exert one of the greatest solo efforts one will ever see, scoring an end to end beauty to lift the Rams to a 2-1-overtime victory in game two of the OUA West semi-finals.

BOXSCORE

"I knew when I got over the blue line that I was gonna to go through my legs and try and put the shoulder down and take it to the net," said Fine when describing his thinking on the goal. "I just tried to go through the net with the puck and it worked out."

The fans at the Mattamy Athletic Centre weren't the only ones that Fine impressed with his efforts. Rams head coach Graham Wise had nothing but good things to say about his captain following the contest.

"I double shifted him in overtime and the guy is just a workhorse out there," said head coach Graham Wise when describing Fine's performance. "It was outstanding and I think he got to the point where enough is a enough, let's get the puck to the net and hopefully it goes in. He's just a great competitor."

The Fine goal found the back of the net with just 3:12 remaining in the extra frame and ended one of the most physical games the Rams have ever been apart of this season.

"Every game has to be hard. If your going to play soft you're not going to win," said Fine when describing the games physicality. "At this time everybody buys in, we talk about it in the room, whatever it takes to win we're going to do."

The game went down to the wire thanks to the stellar performances from the men between the pipes. Gryphons starter Andrew D'Agostini faced 49 shots after it was all said and done, including a staggering 20 in overtime.

Rams net minder Troy Passingham made a number of key stops of his own throughout the contest, stopping 29 out of the 30 shots he faced over 76 minutes of work.

"Troy's been great all year, I mean he hasn't had many bad games at all," said Fine when describing his net minder. "In the second half he had two shutouts and he's a senior guy and he wants to finish strong."

After a scoreless first period, the Rams were presented with a golden opportunity to start the second. Gryphons Robert De Fulviis and Peter Soligo took late first period penalties to put their team down a couple. It took just 1:45 into the second for the Rams to finally set up their go-to triggerman in Brandon Devlin, who snapped home his first of the post-season to give the Rams a 1-0 lead.

The combination of goaltending dominance and physical play quickly put the offensive aspect of the game on hold, which resulted in a scoreless second period.

Passingham remained perfect until the dying minutes of the third. Kyle Neuber received a pass in the slot from Robert Lepine and wristed home his team leading fourth post-season goal. The Neuber marker came with just 1:31 left in the third and paved the way for a deciding overtime period.

The rest is history. Fine blew past the Gryphons and sent the puck between the wickets of D'Agostini for the winner.

"The guys raised to the occasion today and knew what they had to do," said Wise. "They did what they had to do and we got the job done."

The Rams and the Gryphons will meet in a decisive game three on Sunday at the Gryphon Centre Arena, a place that the Rams seemed to struggle in throughout game ones loss. Wise and company are well aware of who their up against, but he believes their up to the task.

"Guelph is the defending champions and their playing like they want to prove they can do it again," said Wise. "It's a tough customer were up against but I think we are every bit as good and we want to get by this. We're both working hard to do it so who knows what happens Sunday."

Sunday's game three tilt is scheduled for a 7:30pm start at the Gryphon Centre Arena and will be streamed live to OUA.tv.

Source: Ryerson Rams