The good news for the Owen Sound Attack is that you don’t win a playoff series in just one game, as the Bears took a tough 7-0 Game 1 loss at the hands of the London Knights to open the team’s first round series Friday night.
Going into the action the Attack knew that London would feed off the home crowd’s energy, and the Bears did a good job of holding the Knights and the crowd out of the game for much of the opening period. It was a small blip just over five minutes into the action though that had Owen Sound behind the eight ball early, as London was able to get a net side puck to squeak through Attack goalie Corbin Votary, giving the home side the advantage.
Owen Sound would try and counter, even coming close with a pair of glorious chances during a power play, but London goalie Brett Brochu kept the Bears off the scoreboard, as the Knights took their 1-0 lead into intermission.
The middle frame would see the Attack on their heels for much of the 20 minutes, and during that time some defensive lapses were made which allowed London to build the score to 4-0 before Owen Sound started to mount a push back.
The emotion of the game, though high to begin, ramped up even more as the score began to climb in favour of the home team, as the teams combined for 43 minutes of penalties, even with the refs allowing the teams to play more freely.
The Attack will look for a bounce back game Sunday afternoon in Game 2 of the series as they hope to take a series split back to the Bayshore Tuesday night.