Attack fall in regular season finale

The Owen Sound Attack concluded the 2015-16 Ontario Hockey League Regular Season with a Midwest Division rivalry game against the Kitchener Rangers, and Saturday, Mar. 19’s affair was one the Attack would like to forget.

Four first period goals would put the Attack in a hole they wouldn’t be able to escape from and the Attack would eventually fall 7-3 on the night.

The first period saw the Rangers offense come in waves with nary a moment to breathe for the Attack.

Kitchener’s intense pressure would pay off with four goals in the opening frame, with all of them coming over the course of the final 12:10 of the frame.

Gustaf Franzen would score first for Kitchener, a backhand that evaded a sprawled Michael McNiven to open the scoring. Franzen would score once more in the frame as well, banging home a loose puck to put the visitors up 3-0 after Jeremy Bracco made it a two goal lead just after the 10 minue mark.

Kitchener would round out the scoring in the period with the Attack on a Paul Davis Systems Penalty Kill late in the frame with Dylan DiPerna finding pay-dirt on a slapshot from the point with 1:19 left before the break.

Despite being outscored 4-0 in the frame, Michael McNiven would come up big for Owen Sound on a pair of plays in the first, making two highlight reel saves to keep the score from getting any more lopsided.

The Attack looked to rally when the 2nd period began, but the middle 20 minutes seemed to pick up where the 1st left off.

Mason Kohn would score on a back door pass to put the Rangers up 5-0 just 1:16 into the stanza with the teams playing four-on-four.

Owen Sound would get on the board though, scoring on a Tyler MacArthur snapper at the 9:07 mark of the period to break Dawson Carty’s bid for a shutout on the night. MacArthur’s 2nd of the year would be assisted by  Josh Sterk in what would be Sterk and fellow overager Bryson Cianfrone’s final regular season game of their OHL careers.

The Rangers would come storming back though, with Connor Hall scoring on a breakaway less than a minute later to restore their five goal advantage.

But the goal trading would continue, and the Attack would see rookie forward Zach Roberts nab his first career OHL marker to make it 6-2.

With 8:32 left in the 2nd, Roberts would take a pass from Matthew Struthers and streak across the blueline before rifling a snapshot over the blocker of Carty in a highlight reel start to his goal scoring career.

Roberts’ goal would end the scoring flurry in the 2nd, as neither team would find the back of the net again and Kitchener would take their four goal advantage into the 3rd period.

The final 20 minutes of action wouldn’t provide nearly the same offensive flair that the first two frames did and it would be marked long stretches of whistle-less back and forth action.

That would eventually come to an end though, with the Rangers tagging on their 7th goal of the evening thanks to a Joseph Garreffa solo effort with 8:29 left in the game.

Nick Suzuki would eventually make it 7-3, scoring his 20th goal of the year on a stellar rush with 16:43 of the 3rd period gone. Jonah Gadjovich and Jacob Friend would grab the assists on the play, which would be the game’s final goal.

Jacob Friend was named the Hatten Home Building Centre Hardest Working Player of the Game for his efforts on the night and Zach Roberts’ 1st career OHL goal would garner him Mac Taylor Corporation 3rd Star.

Kitchener’s Gustaf Franzen and Josheph Garreffa would be named 1st and 2nd stars respectively.

The Mark McDade Remax Shots on Goal would finish at 38-32 in favour of Kitchener on the evening with Michael McNiven turning aside 31 shots in the loss.

The Attack will now take on the London Knights in the first round of the 2016 Ontario Hockey League Playoffs after the Knights fell 4-2 to the Erie Otters on Friday night and dropped to 3rd in the Western Conference. A full schedule of the series against London will be made available shortly.

For Owen Sound’s first two home games of the post-season. They are available at the DJ’s Furniture Attack Box Office or by calling 519-371-7452.

This season of Attack Hockey is brought to you by Caframo.