Mbuyi Scores Hat-Trick As Owen Sound Comes From Behind Beating Sarnia 5-4

By Carl Chimenti

Rookie Matthew Mbuyi scored his first career OHL hat-trick and added one more in the shoot-out to lead the Owen Sound Attack (14-26-2-3) to a 5-4 shoot-out win, in come from behind fashion over the Sarnia Sting (16-20-3-6) Saturday night at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.

It was a wild third period with the Sting holding a 3-1 lead going in. The Attack scored three goals, two of them on the power-play to grab a 4-3 lead. Sarnia was not finished and they dug deep and scored the tying goal with a power-play of their own, which came with a 6-3 advantage that included an extra attacker after pulling Maillet. The Sting won control off the face-off with Lukas Fischer (St. Louis Blues) sending a pass to Tyson Doucette and his one timer blast beat Matthew Koprowski at 18:59 to send the game to overtime. Mbuyi scored twice in that third period and after the overtime session went scoreless with Sarnia out-shooting Owen Sound 4-2, the game went to a shoot-out.

Mbuyi continued his hot scoring with the first goal and Sarnia, Ontario native Landen Hookey scored the clinching second goal to wrap up the Attack win. Mbuyi was the first star and Hookey was the third star of the game. Matthew Manza, with his first OHL career multiple point game, (one goal and two assists) was named the second star.

Alessandro Di lorio also had a goal and two assists. Doucette’s tying goal was his team leading 17th of the season. Hughston Hurt scored his second of the year with less than two seconds on the clock in the second period. Easton Wainwright had a pair of assists, along with one each from both James Barr and Fischer. Evan Maillet was terrific in net and came close to stealing this game as he stopped 35 of 39 shots.

Hookey, James Petrovski and Tristan Delisle had two assists each for the Attack. Koprowski picked up his third win against Sarnia this season, as he turned away 31 of 35 shots, with two more in the shoot-out. Owen Sound out-shot Sarnia 41-35 and scored three power-play goals in four chances. Sarnia went one for four with the man-advantage. A hard fought first period saw the Sting score twice. Wainwright picked the pocket of an Owen Sound player along the half boards and then feed Manza, who scored back door at 9:37. Wainwright and Di lorio drew the assist. The Attack tied the game at 14:57 as Mbuyi scored on the power-play from Hookey and Petrovski. It took less than two minutes for the Sting to go back in front. Barr let go a shot off the back boards and the puck came to Di lorio, and he put the puck into the back of the net from a sharp angle at 16:59, with Barr and Manza assisting. The scoring play went under review for a possible offside and after a short review the goal was ruled a good goal. Both teams had ten shots on goal.

In the second period Maillet was simply unbeatable as he stopped all 14 Attack shots, many of the highlight variety. Maillet best save came early with Owen Sound on the power-play, making a great save on an attempted wrap around. Maillet, late in the period had to face a penalty shot from Delisle, who hit the cross bar. It looked like Maillet got a small part of his glove before the puck hit iron.

Sarnia broke through scoring the lone goal with less than 2 seconds to play at 19:59. Hurt let go a shot from inside the blue line and the puck had eyes, beating a screened Koprowski upstairs. Wainwright and Manza were credited with the assists. Both teams went 0/1 on the power-play. Owen Sound out-shot Sarnia 14-11.