The Gaels finished off their thrilling OUA final series against the Guelph Gryphons Friday night with a 3-2 overtime victory after a sixth overtime period win in Guelph on Wednesday.

Forward Liz Kench fought to get the puck back in the Guelph end after being down 2-0 at the beginning of the second. Forward Kelsey Thomson benefited from her teammate’s work and capitalized on the pass, scoring from the blue line on a hard shot past the Guelph goaltender.

Kench assisted on forward Morgan McHaffie’s tying goal midway through the third. For the fifth straight game, the Gaels participated in extra time. With the Guelph goaltender out of position, defenceman Kelly Eustace shovelled the puck in from the red line and scored the winning goal with less than one second remaining.

Head coach Matt Holmberg said the win was unbelievable. “Some of the girls have been waiting five years for this,” he said. “I’m so happy for them.”

Gaels goaltender Melissa Dodd-Moher said the Guelph team played well.

“Obviously we got down two goals, which wasn’t exactly in the plan but [Guelph] came out hard, I’ll give it to them for that,” she said. “They had a lot of heart. In the end, we came back and did it the way we like to do it; in overtime, apparently.”

See full coverage of the OUA Finals in the Friday issue.