Friday Highlights: All hands on deck as Otters win Game 5
ERIE 4 – OWEN SOUND 2 – ER leads series 3-2
A late second period 4-on-4 goal from Detroit Red Wings prospect Jordan Sambrook (5) proved to the game winner as the Erie Otters skated to a 4-2 victory over visiting Owen Sound in Game 5 of their Western Conference Final series.
The Otters take a 3-2 series lead headed back to Owen Sound for Game 6 on Sunday afternoon.
Rookie forward Gera Poddubnyi (1, 2) had a pair of goals while Owen Hendrick and Anthony Cirelli each recorded a pair of assists and Taylor Raddysh (9) hit the open net to seal the deal.
“We had two goals from our fourth line tonight,” said Otters head coach Kris Knoblauch after the win. “These are guys that have been playing really well like ‘G’ (Poddubnyi) and I’m proud of them.”
As far as the Otters are concerned, Knoblauch says a good defence translates into a better offence.
“For two games in a row I think we have gotten better as the game has gone on,” he said. “We’ve been better defensively and as a result we’ve had more scoring chances.”
The two teams wrapped up the first period knotted at one as Owen Sound rookie Aidan Dudas (1, 2) scored his first of two on the night before Poddubnyi responded just over two minutes later at 17:23.
The free-flowing first period saw Owen Sound outshoot Erie 14-13 as both goaltenders were tested.
Dudas put the Attack up 2-1 6:20 into the second, providing traffic in front of Troy Timpano off a shot from linemate Matt Schmalz.
The Otters stormed back before the end of the second though as Poddubnyi connected with TJ Fergus and Owen Hendrick at 11:11 before Jordan Sambrook scored the eventual game winner walking in off the blue line with 14 seconds to spare in the period.
Erie did a good job of suppressing Owen Sound in the third period, taking the shot column 15-4 for a game advantage of 39-25.
Taylor Raddysh took a feed from Dylan Strome to hit the empty net and send the Erie faithful home happy with a 4-2 victory, one win away from advancing to the Rogers OHL Championship Series.
“I thought that their best players were their best players and we gave up way too many scoring chances at the beginning of the game,” said Attack head coach Ryan McGill following the loss. “We had some push in the third period and for whatever reason we couldn’t connect.”
The fast-paced game featured just one power play as the two clubs kept it clean, trading chances until the final buzzer.
The Otters and Attack go back to work in Game 6 of the series set for 2:00pm on Sunday afternoon in Owen Sound.
POST-GAME COMMENTS:
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