Gryphons defeat Lakers 6-1 to win second straight McCaw Cup title

GUELPH, ON – It turns out that twice is just as nice.

The Guelph Gryphons are once again the McCaw Cup champions. They successfully defended their OUA women's hockey title, defeating the Nipissing Lakers 6-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Gryphon Centre.

Guelph will now advance to the U Sports national championship tournament next week in Napanee, hosted by the Queen's Gaels.

"It's just as good, but it's completely different," said goaltender Valerie Lamenta, an OUA first-team all-star who was named the McCaw Cup's most valuable player after stopping 16 of 17 shots.

"You can't try to repeat what you did last year, you've just got to move on. It was a brand new season, and we had goals, and we surpassed every single one of them," said the third-year netminder and Montreal native.

"It's the best feeling in the world, and I did it with the best group of girls that I could possibly ask for. Right now I'm just over the moon." 

"So much hard work went into this, and I couldn't be more proud of this group. It was such a thorough effort," added winger Kaitlyn Lowy, who scored what would stand up as the winning goal early in the second period.

Nipissing's Stacey Henshaw scored the only goal of the opening frame. The Lakers presented a tough physical challenge to the home team, but the Gryphs responded with two goals in the first three minutes of the middle frame, seizing a lead they would never relinquish. 

Sydney Davison got Guelph on the board at 1:13, then Lowy finished off a beautiful play with Kelly Gribbons at 2:45.

"It was such an incredible line goal," said Lowy, a Toronto native who, along with Gribbons, was also named an OUA all-star earlier in the week. 

"I just grabbed the puck in the slot and put it in. I've got to give all the credit to my linemates. It was a huge play, and it was obviously exhilarating, and it really got the ball rolling for us."

She added that there was no sense of panic in the Guelph dressing room despite trailing after 20 minutes of play. 

"We knew that we'd been in this position before. We're experienced in this game," she said. "We just threw out the jitters. We said, the first period's done, it's time to go to work, and we found another gear. Ultimately, our resilience and attitude in the dressing room was what allowed us to come out with that three-goal second."

Gribbons, a fourth-year forward from Port Elgin, ON, scored her team's third goal of the period after taking a pass from Claire Merrick and wiring a wrist shot past Lakers all-star netminder Jacqueline Rochefort. 

"We knew we were a good enough team to come back," Gribbons said, adding that the Gryphs will be tough to beat at nationals if they continue to show that kind of resilience.

"We just have to keep bringing the same game. The last 40 minutes of that game was probably the best hockey we've played all year. We've just got to keep doing that." 

Gryphs head coach Rachel Flanagan said she didn't have to say much in the first intermission, with her team down a goal, or in the second intermission, with her team sitting on a two-goal lead.

"There were no upset faces, no one feeling really nervous, no heads hung low," she said of the mood in the room after the first period. "It was just, we're going to trust the process, we're going to get it done here. 

"Between the second and third it was just, that's how we play our hockey. We finally got a few on net. . . We had to put pucks in the net in a strategic way. They've got a strong goaltender, and we had to find creative ways to score on her today. That's what we did."

Sophie Contant made it 4-1 early in the third period after tipping in a shot from the point by Meagan Lee. Davison scored her second goal into an empty net after the Lakers pulled Rochefort in favour of an extra attacker with six minutes left. Kristen Jay closed out the scoring with 1:22 left in regulation. 

It was a disappointing finish for the Lakers, who had the second-best record in the league during the regular season at 14-3-4-3 (the first-place Gryphs were 16-4-3-1). Nipissing, in only its fourth season in the OUA, earned its first McCaw Cup berth by ousting Laurentian and Toronto from the playoffs while Guelph eliminated Windsor and Waterloo.

"It's just another learning experience for us," said Lakers head coach Darren Turcotte. "The first year we didn't make the playoffs, but we've been able to advance a little bit further every year. 

"We have a good core coming back next year, and we feel that our recruits who are coming in next year are going to help us, so hopefully we keep progressing and reach the top of the mountain that we're looking for."

Guelph, winners of back-to-back OUA titles for the first time since winning four in a row from 1967 to 1970, will now make its third straight trip to nationals. The Gryphs placed fourth last year after finishing fifth and taking the consolation crown in 2015. 

The schedule for this year's U Sports tournament has not been finalized, but the Gryphs are likely to play a quarter-final game on Thursday. If they win, they'll play in a semifinal on Saturday. The gold-medal game is set for Sunday night.

"One game at a time," Flanagan said of her team's strategy entering nationals. "It's going to be taking care of those little details, focusing on just what we need to do shift to shift, game to game." 

"Right now we're ranked second in the country, and I think we can live up to that expectation," Contant said. 

"You've really got to be lucky to be good, and good to be lucky, in a lot of circumstances," Lowy added. "But we know if we put our best 60 together for all our games, we'll have a really good chance at a national championship."