In the 22 year history of OHL Hockey in Owen Sound, the local squad attempts to do tomorrow night what no other entry from the franchise has been able to accomplish; win 41 games in a season.
With wins last weekend against Guelph & Oshawa, the current edition of the Attack bypassed the 1998-99 Platers who had 39 wins and tied the franchise record holding Attack club of 2004-05 who won 40 games.
Pretty select company for the current Attack, no matter how much debate it has sparked amongst fans as to which team truly would be the greatest.
In fairness, and for the sake of balance, the 99 Platers and the 05 Attack played in an era in which there were no shooutouts in the OHL and overtime, at least for the Platers, was a 5 on 5 scenario, not 4 on 4.
So, the 99 Platers finished their season with 5 tie games while the 05 Attack had 7 ties that year.
Is it unfair to assume that the Platers and Attack would have won half of the tie games in a shootout, had it existed, and bolstered their totals ?
Or is it unfair to call the 2 Attack shootout wins ” ties ” and say the victory total is really 38 ?
Naw, I’m nitpicking here, but there’s no doubt the current Owen Sound Attack have won their right to be considered, if not proclaimed among the best OHL regular season teams in almost a quarter of a century in the city.
A win tomorrow night at home against Peterborough, statistically would make them # 1 and give them a franchise record heading to their final 6 games which will all be Western Conference toughies.
I’m Fred Wallace