Tenth-ranked Green Bay United and unheralded Stevens Point danced around for two periods like two prize-fighters sizing each other up, but in the end the visiting Gryphons scored four final period goals for a decisive 5-2 win over SPASH in the opening round of the Sentry Hockey Classic Friday evening at K.B. Willett Arena.

The first period was scoreless, with the highlight being three nice saves by SPASH goalie Michael Storch midway through the period. 

The guests finally got on the board in the second, when Joe Spencer rammed home a rebound at the 45 second mark on assists from Hunter Routheau and Jay Routheau.

GBU almost took a two-goal lead when Storch was out of the net playing the puck, but Mason Czaikowski made a great save of a GBU shot, deflecting an almost certain goal out of harm's way with his stick.

Matt Dufresne nearly tied the contest when he stole the puck behind the net and deked GBU goalie Will Griswold, but his shot ricocheted harmlessly off the right post.

GBU carried a narrow 1-0 lead into the final period, but Luke Mailhiot scored his first goal of the year on an assist from Luke Karakas on a nice drop-pass at the 4:36 mark to make it 2-0.

Less than two minutes later, the Gryphons would increase their lead to 3-0 when they came down on a 2-on-1 rush. Spencer grabbed a backdoor pass from Evan Janssen and buried the biscuit at 6:11 for a power play goal.

Twenty-one seconds later, Kenton Grulkowski motored down the left side and ripped a shot that beat Griswold on the glove side to cut the lead to 3-1.

Just under a  minute later, GBU cashed in for a 4-1 lead when Spencer completed his hat trick on helpers from the Routheau brothers.

That score held for just over five minutes until Jeffrey Wychesit  snagged a pass from Logan Brown and put it past the GBU goalie to cut the lead to 4-2 with just under five minutes remaining in the contest.

After a SPASH timeout, they pulled Storch for an extra attacker, but that backfired when Janssen scored an empty-netter to account for the 5-2 final.

Griswold tallied 25 saves in a winning effort for GBU, who raised their record to 11-2 and will play Mosinee at 5:00 Saturday for the Sentry Classic title.

Storch stopped 29 shots for SPASH, who drop to 7-7 and will meet Waupaca at 7:15 Saturday evening.