The Windsor Lancer men's hockey team started off their 2024-25 OUA regular season campaign up in Guelph on Thursday night where they won their first outing of the season spoiling the Guelph Gryphons home opener with a 5-3 victory on the road.
 
The Lancers then travelled back down the 401 to host the Gryphons on Saturday night at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex where this time the Gryphons exacted revenge over the blue and gold spoiling Windsor's home opener serving the Lancers with a 4-3 decision that came up short and handing them their first loss on the year.
 
STATS
On Thursday the Lancers had goals from Aaron Shaw, Ray Hamlin, Matt McNamara, Dominic Muffareh, and Will Ennis who each picked up their first goals of the 2024-25 season while Lancers netminder Nathan Torchia made 23 saves on 26 shots faced. 
 
On Saturday, Torchia made 21 saves in the loss while Keegan McMullen netted his first two goals of the season and Johnny Ulicny scored his first OUA goal of his career.  Ennis and David Jesus each had two points off their pair of assists in the loss at home.
 
THURSDAY GAME FLOW IN GUELPH
The Lancers opened the scoring with Mufarreh's marker from Ulicny coming as the first Lancer goal of the season giving the blue and gold a 1-0 lead at the 2:02 mark of the first period. 
 
Hamlin would then later pick up his first of the season later in the period off a pass from Brady Hinz which made it a 2-0 lead at 15:56 of the first period.  Shaw would then notch his goal to triple the lead for Windsor with helpers from Jesus and McMullen which gave the blue and gold a 3-0 lead on the scoreboard in the opening frame. 
 
The period then saw one more goal from the Gryphons side when Guelph's Ethan Doyle netted his first of the season to make it a 3-1 hockey game for Windsor to round out the first 20 minutes of play. 
 
Guelph would strike twice while shorthanded in the second period when first Dylan Hudon's unassisted tally came at 4:56 before being followed up by his teammate Luke Bignell's first of the season to make it a 3-3 hockey game after the two shorthanded Gryphon goals stalemated the contest at 3 apiece.  The Lancers power play unit would later in the period be able to solve Guelph's netminder Colton Incze when the captain McNamara scored at the 18:50 mark to give the Lancers the go-ahead goal and regain a one goal lead at 4-3 with the man-advantage.
 
In the third, Ennis would find the back of the net for the insurance marker that made it a win for Windsor to kick off their season where they were able to hold on to earn their first win of the season with a 5-3 victory in Guelph.
 
SATURDAY GAME FLOW IN WINDSOR
Guelph's Nolan Dann scored his first OUA goal to open the game's scoring off a pass from Bignell to make it a 1-0 game at 6:01 in the opening period. 
 
Later in the first frame, the Lancers would find the back of the Guelph net on the power play when McMullen scored his first power play marker on the evening converting on a two-man advantage at 18:50 to equalize the game at 1-1 and stayed in effect after 20 minutes of play. 
 
Nolan DeGurse of the Gryphons would then haunt the Lancers in the second period when Guelph was on the power play.  DeGurse's first goal came at 9:37 and again less than two minutes later at 11:09 of the second to then capture a two goal lead at 3-1 in favour of Guelph.   
 
The power play would then click again for the Lancers late in the second period when McMullen's second on the night beat Guelph's goaltender Cal Schell and made it a 3-2 score going into the second intermission at that. 
 
In the third period, the Gryphons were able to regain a two-goal cushion when Julian Vander Voet snuck one by Torchia to make it a 4-2 game.  Despite the Lancers valiant efforts to find two, they only managed to find one more to get by Schell when Ulicny's first of the season beat him at 10:49 left in the game which made the score 4-3 and that was the final with Schell backstopping his team to victory down the stretch with his 26 save performance in Windsor.  With the loss the Lancers fall to 1-1 on the season and the Gryphons improved to 1-1 on the young season with each side spoiling one another's season openers and picking up road wins to kick off the 2024-25 campaign
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers will be back in action at home on Friday October 11th at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex when they host the Brock Badgers for a 7:30pm puck drop. 
 
Fans can purchase their tickets in advance here at goLancers.ca/tickets or on game day at the CPRC rink gate. Or for those looking to tune in outside the rink, Lancer hockey fans can catch the live action streaming on OUA.Tv or follow our Windsor Lancers social media pages including on X for live in game updates throughout.