It’s been a tough few games for the Owen Sound Attack against their Highway 6 rival Guelph Storm. After dropping a pair of game two weeks ago, as well as, the first half of the weekend home-and-home, the Attack lost their fourth straight meeting with their division rival Saturday night, falling 3-2 in overtime.
It was a special night for the Attack organization and all its fans, as Saturday marked the first game at the Bayshore since the passing of Ray McKelvie. After a touching tribute the Attack came out of the gates hungry, as they forced the play onto the Storm, but had little results to show for their efforts.
Much like Friday night’s affair the Storm were able to play stingy defence, keeping the Attack from getting high quality scoring chances. It was the visitors who then built off their defence, as they started to press the play and were eventually rewarded when a point shot got blocked in front, but it was Storm forward Jake Karabela who pounced on the loose puck, knocking it into an empty net as Attack goalie Corbin Votary was fighting to find the biscuit.
Unlike Friday night when the Attack were able to fund an answer after each Storm goal, it was Guelph netting the next marker, as just 25 seconds into the second period Ben McFarlane walked into the Attack zone and ripped a wrister past Votary to give the visitors the 2-0 lead. The multi-goal deficit injected some urgency into the home side, as Owen Sound began to hound loose pucks all over the ice. Their bulldog mentality of hunting pucks was finally rewarded, when Kaleb Lawrence caused a turnover behind the Storm net before finding Den Goure in the low slot, who fired home his 17th of the season.
Trailing in the final period Owen Sound struggled to generate consistent offensive pressure as Guelph’s stingy defence held strong. It looked as though the Attack would be shunned from a game tying goal, but it was Lawrence on a late period power play having a point shot deflect off his shin pad, evening the game at 2-2.
For the third time in four meetings the two teams would need extra time to decide the game. The result however, was similar to the previous two games, as Guelph skated off the Bayshore ice with a second overtime victory in two weeks.
The Attack will have little time to stew over the outcome as they have a quick turnaround, welcoming the SOO GreyHounds to the Bayshore for an IPC Sunday matinee game. Tickets for the game are becoming limited but can be purchased at the MacVicor and McComb Sutton Realty Attack Box Office by calling 519-371-7452 or going online to tickets.attackhockey.com.
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