The rivalry continued to heat up Saturday night between the Owen Sound Attack and the London Knights. The back and forth scoring game ended with an empty net goal and the Knights defeating the Attack 5-3.
With three previous losses so far to the Knights this season, the reigning OHL champions were looking for redemption. The Attack team and fans are still feeling the loss of hockey phenom Artur Gavrus who is still out with concussion symptoms because of a collision with fellow rookie star Max Domi two weeks ago.
It did not take long for the fighting to begin as Attack fan favourite Daniel Zweep dropped the gloves early in the game against Kyle Flemington. The game was book- ended with another Zweep fight, this time against Jarrod Tinordi. With just over a minute to go in regulation time the score keeper had his hands full as the refs dished out the consequences. Tinordi received an instigator and misconduct; Tyler Ferry, Dane Fox, and Jared Knight each received a misconduct. Zweep was given a head check and a game misconduct and team mate Mike Halmo a misconduct. When the OHL offices open Monday morning, commissioner David Branch will be checking out the video tape.
The action in between the Zweep fights was once again a close game between the two rivals but also once again resulted with the Knights on top. London Knight forward Andreas Athanasiou has certainly figured out the Attack systems. While scoring a hat trick Saturday he was able to rack up his eleventh goal of the season…..seven of them have been against the Attack.
While Attack goaltender Scott Stajcer performed admirably stopping 30+ shots, he was disappointed at the loss stating “The guys came out hard, a lot of guys battled. We need the whole team on the same page. It was an emotional loss to London again, we’ve had three of them already, this being the fourth. Everyone in (the dressing room) hates them and wants to win every time.”
When asked how the Attack will prepare for their next Knight match up, Stajcer says “we’ve got to come out hard….everyone has to be ready, can’t say the whole team was ready (tonight). We have to push through and battle harder.”
It should be another sell out crowd at the Bayshore when the Knights return to Owen Sound on January 21st.
Tough game for the attack. Thanks for linking the fight in there, epic.