Lessons Learned, Comeback Comes up Short
The Owen Sound Attack opened the 2024-25 OHL Regular Season at the Sleeman Centre on Friday night against the Guelph Storm. Despite a valiant comeback attempt the Attack dropped their first game of the season 6-4 to their division rivals. Leading the way for the Attack were Landen Hookey, Jake Crawford, Pierce Mbuyi and Antonio Tersigni who all had goals, while rookie defenceman Max Bleicher tallied 2 assists. The Attack will look to exact revenge tomorrow night when the two teams meet at the Bayshore for the Attack home opener.
The Attack had a solid start to the first period outshooting the Storm early, unfortunately shortly after a successful Attack penalty kill the Storm would find the back of the net off the stick of Ryan McGuire. A little over 5 minutes later Cam Allen went for a skate going end to end and finishing it off by beating Koprowski to make it 2-0 for the Storm. A few minutes later the Attack were rewarded with their first power play of the season and after setting up in the offensive zone Bruce McDonald found fellow overage forward Landen Hookey in front of the net who made the quick turn and lifted the puck over the shoulder of Gillespie to cut the deficit to 2-1. Late in the period, the Storm pushed the young Attack team and were able to capitalize on some scrambles in front of the Attack net extending the Storm lead to 4-1 thanks to goals from Will McFadden and Daniil Skvortsov.
Early in the second the Attack seemed to have heeded the call from the coaching staff and stepped up their play and pushed back at the Storm. Unfortunately, even with this the Storm were once again able to be first on the score board when Alex McLean beat Koprowski after a turnover turned into a 2-on-0. The Attack continued to push but could not find the back of the net. However, shortly after Hookey and Rowan Topp each received 5-minute majors for fighting the Attack stepped up their play further. Russian Import forward Rafik Varosyan stole the puck at the Storm blue line and went in all alone, beating Gillespie, but could not beat the crossbar. Thankfully, Jake Crawford followed up the play and buried the puck to bring the score to 5-2 before the 2nd break.
It was the Storm again that would open the scoring in the third period when a bad bounce got behind Koprowski giving Jake Karabela is first of the season and the Storm a 6-2 lead. Despite this the Attack continued to push their play and force the Storm to play a complete 60 minute game. With four minutes to play, the Attack were rewarded for their efforts when rookie forward Pierce Mbuyi snapped home his first career OHL goal to make it 6-3. Just over two minutes later, for the second time in the game, Antonio Tersigni was sprung on a break and this time he would snap it home past Gillespie to make it 6-4 with 1 second left in the 4-on-4. The Attack would pull Koprowski for the extra attacker, but despite a great effort the Attack were not able to complete the comeback, losing the season opener 6-4.
Up next for the Attack is a re-match with the Storm tomorrow night at the Bayshore. Game Time is set for 7pm. After that the Attack will hit the road on Friday, October 4 in Brantford before returning home on Saturday, October 5 for Country Night against the Kitchener Rangers, where the first 3,000 fans will receive a Owen Sound Attack Cowboy hat. Single game tickets and flex packages are on sale now and can be purchased in person at the MacVicar & McComb Sutton Realty Attack Box Office, over the phone at 519-371-7452 or online at tickets.attackhockey.com.
