Overtime Attack defeats Battalion
OWEN SOUND, Ont. – Jay Gilbert’s second goal of the game, at 4:35 of overtime, lifted the Owen Sound Attack to a 4-3 victory over the Brampton Battalion in Ontario Hockey League action Saturday night.
Defenceman Gilbert wired a shot from the right point off a faceoff in the offensive zone following a Battalion timeout to give Owen Sound its first win in five games. The Attack’s previous victory was a 3-1 home-ice decision Dec. 17 over the Kitchener Rangers.
Cameron Brace also scored two goals and added an assist for Owen Sound. Daniel Catenacci contributed three assists and goaltender Scott Stajcer made 35 saves for the Attack, which has a won-lost-extended record of 19-17-5 for 43 points, third in the Midwest Division.
Sam Carrick scored one goal and earned one assist for the Battalion, while Matt MacLeod and Brenden Miller also scored. Barclay Goodrow had two assists, while goaltender Keegan Wilson faced 26 shots before a crowd of 3,183.
The Battalion, 8-0-3 in its last 11 games and without a regulation-time loss since a 4-0 setback Dec. 2 to the host Sudbury Wolves, is 22-10-7 for 51 points, first in the Central Division.
“In overtime, with the faceoff in your own end with 30 seconds to go, you know Sam has been winning draws all night, so you call a timeout to allow him to be rested, and the puck ends up in the back of your net,” lamented Battalion coach Stan Butler.
Said Butler: “The penalties were a little lopsided. They got three five-on-three power plays, and that’s a lot in a game, let alone in five or six minutes. But we weathered the storm and went into the third period down a goal, and then the guys battled hard.”
Brace precipitated overtime at 10:29 of the third period, converting the rebound from the slot of a Mike Halmo shot off the rush. It was Brace’s 14th goal of the season.
Carrick gave the Battalion a 3-2 lead at 4:36, scoring his 18th goal from the right side.
Miller tied it 2-2 at 44 seconds of the period, wiring a shot from above the left-wing circle. It was the first OHL goal for rookie defenceman Miller.
Owen Sound scored two goals with a two-man advantage early in the second period to erase a 1-0 first-period deficit.
Gilbert tied it at 1:00, snapping a right-point shot behind Wilson.
Carrick put the Troops two men down for what was scheduled to be a minute when he was sent off for boarding at 3:08, his third penalty of the game. Brace dashed off the right wing to convert the rebound of a shot from the slot by Catenacci at 3:40.
Carrick was foiled on a breakaway coming out of the box after the penalty, gathering a puck that slid out of the Owen Sound zone and racing in on Stajcer only to have a backhander denied.
Wilson made a sterling right-pad stop against Catenacci on a solo break-in in the seventh minute and produced a big save against Gemel Smith on the right wing at the 18-minute mark.
MacLeod opened the scoring 11:17 into the game, corralling the puck in the neutral zone and chipping it deftly off the right-wing boards past a defender before beating Stajcer with a low shot from a sharp angle.
Patrik Machac shot from the right-wing circle on each of two two-on-one rushes, with Stajcer gathering the puck to his midsection both times.
The Battalion scratched Marcus McIvor, Brandon Robinson and Andreas Tsogkas. Owen Sound, which dressed 18, two below the limit, scratched Brayden Rose, Jarrod Maidens, Artur Gavrus and Kurtis MacDermid.
The Battalion hosts the Oshawa Generals at 2 p.m. Sunday.
BATTALION NOTEBOOK: The Battalion went 0-for-4 on the power play. Owen Sound was 2-for-7 … The Troops, who lost 3-2 via shootout Friday night to the host Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, are 11-5-5 on the road. Owen Sound is 11-7-1 at home … Owen Sound acquired defenceman Kyle Hope and two OHL Priority Selection picks from Oshawa in a trade Saturday for rearguards Matt Petgrave and Geoffrey Schemitsch and a fourth-rounder in 2015. The picks the Attack received are second-rounders in 2012 and 2015. Hope assisted on the overtime goal … Owen Sound coach Greg Ireland coached the Caledon Canadians, a junior A club operated by Battalion owner Scott Abbott, for four seasons starting in 1994-95 … A moment’s silence was observed for Jack McGregor, the timekeeper since the inception of OHL games in Owen Sound. A member of both the Owen Sound Sports Hall of Fame and the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame, McGregor died Monday at 71. The referees’ room in the J.D. McArthur Arena at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre has been named in his honour … Opening line combinations included Carrick centring left winger Ian Watters and right winger Goodrow, Machac pivoting left winger Brett Mackie and right winger Philip Lane and Jamie Lewis centring left winger Mitchell Porowski and right winger MacLeod. Connor Jarvis centred left winger Alex O’Neil and Adam Lloyd on right wing … Carrick has a career-high 10-game points streak during which he has eight goals and nine assists for 17 points. He broke a tie with assistant coach Ryan Oulahen for 16th place in Battalion career scoring and has 65 goals and 73 assists for 138 points in 225 games. Carrick is tied with Oulahen for ninth in all-time goals with the club.
