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In what will likely be debated as the greatest playoff round in franchise history, the Guelph Gryphons secured another season in Canada's I.1 with a 2-1 series win over Montreal Harvesters. Fans are claiming it "a momentous victory for the city" and "inspirational hockey at its finest." Truth be told, the series rivals any ever known for Gryphon fans.

"I remember back in the first season. We were huge underdogs yet we found ourselves in the finals. We battled hard, won game 1. We lost game two in OT and at that point were so exhausted we had no shot in game 3. We learned our lesson and after that had 2 straight promotions and found ourselves out of the third division and into the second division. That experience was talked about in the room with the guys who went through it. Newts, O'Brien, Fournier, Messier, Vaverka and myself. We have a strong leadership group here. I think it showed" said Guy Richard the Gryphons' most experienced player.

After dropping game one at home where they had been clutch all year, the Gryphons went on the road and needed a win.

"We lost a tough one at home. One-goal-games are never easy to accept losing. We played well, they just executed better. That's hockey" said the Gryphons' head coach.

Game two was a different story. Both teams threw everything they had at the net and both goalies were extremely busy. Going into the third, the Gryphons had a 4-2 lead - a two-goal lead which is deemed the worst in hockey for a reason.

It was just over 10 minutes into the third when the Gryphons found themselves suddenly down 5-4.

"It was shocking. You take a shift out there and you're up 4-2. Head back out there a few shifts later and it's 5-4. That's how quick the game can change" said Matt Dupuis.

With under a minute left the Gryphon coaches called a timeout.

"We discussed our motivation and everything we've done all year. I didn't give them any set plays. I left them to their instincts. It paid off" said head coach Yves. And pay off it did.

With seconds left on the scoreboard here was the play:

"Martin Žabka breaks into the offensive zone along the boards after the Harvesters players had cleared the puck out. This will be the last chance for the Gryphons. He makes a blind cross-ice pass to Antoine "AC" Slater who sends a quick centering feed picked up by the streaking Craig "Soul Patch" Bowry. Wrist shot by Bowry and they score! No chance for Todd Walton. Tic-tac-toe and the game is tied! Gryphons tie the game with eight seconds left on the clock!"

In the overtime both goalies would come up huge and the game would go to a shootout. In the shootout Newton would shine as would the Gryphon shooters. Newton would stop both attempts by Harvesters while goals by Antoine Slater and Craig Bowry would send the series back to Guelph for a third and deciding game.

Fans packed VMA for the final game of the series, many dawning their own nervous game faces. The start to game three would be worse than their worst possible dreams.

Early into the game, it was all Harvesters. Not even 3 minutes in and Harvesters had a 2-0 lead on their first two shots. The even scarier part was Tim Newton. Newton was shaken up on the last goal, and with Ian Garnett at development camp all eyes turned to the highly untested Noe Currie as Newton made his way to the bench.

"Tim had a minor lower body injury. He came to the bench to talk with the coaching staff. When it was clear he was able to continue he returned to the net" said head trainer Peter Húska.

"They told me if I was good to go then to stay. They had faith in me and told me to draw on all my experience to close the door. If I could do that the rest of the way we'd win" said Newton.

From that point forward it was all Guelph. Harvesters peppered 31 more shots at Newton and had nothing to show for it. Guelph fired 35 shots from that point on at the Harvesters goalie scoring 5 times en route to a 5-2 victory.

After the game, Antoine Slater, the captain, was interviewed.

"All year we were working up to this point. The coaches put a good plan forward. We've conserved our energy and efforts thus far so we were really fresh heading into this series. We worked on the little things that make a difference. I think it really shows how prepared we were. Our powerplay chances, our conversion rate with scoring chances. We got a solid group of goal-scorers here. Thank-god we have a solid goalie to take care of us as we tend to forget about defence! But it certainly feels good to win, it always does. We got another tough series ahead tomorrow, but the stress of potential relegation is gone. And that makes for a happy Gryphon family."

Aowyr was asked to comment on the Gryphons' success and merely responded with a "nl;l,ijjjjyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyn v fgfertyiulol6ytxyjhkjjh" and proceeded to blame it on his aspiring assistant Liam. Gryphon analysis have yet to depict what this code means and will continue to work diligently to see what devious plan Aowyr is up to now.

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