The Waterloo Warriors may have put forth a full 60-minute effort in their playoff opener Wednesday night, but they only needed 10 minutes to do all their damage.

Colin Behenna (Waterloo) scored twice during a five-goal outburst in the second period, and Mike Morrison (Hamilton) made 34 saves for the shutout as the Warriors topped the Guelph Gryphons 5-0 in game 1 of the best-of-three OUA West division quarterfinal at the Columbia Icefield Arena in Waterloo.

Sam Caldwell (Cape Breton), Riley Sonnenburg (Cambridge), and Brett Mackie (Whitby) also contributed to the explosion, which saw the Warriors score all five of the game's goals in the first 10:13 of the second period. Behenna also notched an assist for a three-point night, while Justin Larson (Buckhorn) added a pair of helpers.

Andrew D'Agostini made 27 saves in the loss for the Gryphons, who find themselves facing elimination in game 2 on Thursday night in Guelph. Meanwhile, Morrison made it a memorable CIS playoff debut, recording the 34-save clean sheet.

Despite facing off twice in the final 15 days of the regular season, the first period showed all the signs of two teams feeling each other out. The best chance for either club to open the scoring was on a partial break by Behenna, but D'Agostini stretched to his right and stoned Waterloo's top scorer with a gorgeous pad save. Morrison answered shortly thereafter with a solid blocker save on a point-blank opportunity to keep the game scoreless after the first.

The Warriors ignited the home crowd just a minute into the second period, as Behenna roofed a rebound off a Larson deflection to make it 1-0. Just over five minutes later, the Warriors truly broke the game open when they struck twice in a 26-second span. First, Caldwell streaked down the right wing and wrsited a shot inside the far post, over D'Agostini's blocker hand. Then, Mackie took a Larson feed in front and went upstairs off the water bottle to make it 3-0 for the hosts.

Guelph head coach Shawn Camp had seen enough, calling a timeout to try to rally his troops. The Warriors had other plans, though, and they quelled any uprising that Guelph might have been mounting with a highlight-reel goal. It started when Andrew Smith (Kitchener) cranked up a rush through center ice, gained the Guelph line, and cut across the slot, pulling D'Agostini with him. Then, he flicked a no-look backhand feed to the goal mouth, where Sonnenburg slammed it home to give Waterloo a 4-0 lead.

Behenna rounded out the scoring with the evening's strangest goal, coming just past the mid-way point of the game. With the puck in his own zone, Jordan Mock's bank pass ricocheted off the side boards, the side of the net, and D'Agostini's skate, coming to rest in the crease. Behenna jumped all over it and jammed it home on a second attempt to put Waterloo in front 5-0 after 40 minutes.

The third period was relatively uneventful, save for some tempers boiling over with less than 8 minutes to play. But the benches were placated, Morrison made a few more stops to maintain the shutout, and the Warriors cemented the game one victory.

The Warriors will now look to move on to round 2, while the Gryphons look to extend the series to a third and deciding game. Game 2 of the series will go Thursday night at 7:30 in Guelph, and the game will be streamed live on OUA.tv.

Notes: Both clubs went 0-for-3 on the power play…The Warriors were without captain Joe Underwood (Canton), forwards Chris Chappell (Pickering) and Matt Kennedy (Oro Medonte), and backup goaltender Chris Hurry (Summerland)…Third-string netminder and Video Coach Thomas Black (Flesherton) backed up Morrison.