Darren Rumble, interim head coach of the Owen Sound Attack. Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images.
The Owen Sound Attack dropped their first game of the post-Greg Walters era.
Matthew Sop scored a pair of goals, one of them an empty-netter to seal a 5-3 win for the Kitchener Rangers over the Attack in Ontario Hockey League action Friday night at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
Kitchener (7-2-0-0) won its fourth in a row. While Owen Sound (4-3-1-0) finished a stretch of four straight road games with a 1-2-1 record.
The Attack were playing their first game under interim head coach Darren Rumble, after Walters was let go earlier in the week just seven games into his third season behind the Attack bench.
Hunter Brzustewicz, Carson Rehkopf and Cameron Mercer also scored for Kitchener, which never trailed in the game.
Colby Barlow, Landen Hookey and Ethan Burroughs had the goals for the Attack.
The Rangers had the lone goal of the first period. Brzustewicz worked along the right-wing board on a harmless looking, one-on-three push into the offensive zone. He then let go a mighty wrist shot that beat Carter George high blocker side, and pinged in just under the crossbar. 1-0 Kitchener.
Mercer made it 2-0 early in the second. He took a pass off the rush inside the circle and fired it back the other way past the glove of George. The goal was Mercer’s first of the season.
The Attack got a big goal late in the second. Barlow was sprung on a short-handed breakaway and shot it low past Tristan Malboeuf with 25.6 seconds on the clock, cutting Kitchener’s lead to 2-1.
Sop scored with one second left on a Rangers power play opportunity at 5:35 in the third, finding some and creeping in towards the hash marks before ripping a shot in. The Rangers restored their two-goal lead.
The Attack were back within one 45 seconds later. Jackson Stewart put a puck wide of the goal and Hookey scooped it off the end board and showed some quick hands to move towards the front and jam it inside the post before a sprawling Malboeuf could close the gap.
The Rangers would go up again by two with 4:50 remaining. With Nico Addy off on a tripping minor, Rehkopf connected on the power play. He just took his time to load a shot at the top of the circle and beat George high. 4-2.
But the Attack would quickly answer, again. Deni Goure put a shot towards the net and Burroughs managed to find the rebound and bat it past Malboeuf, pulling Owen Sound within one just 35 seconds after the Rehkopf goal.
Sop sealed the game with an empty-net goal at 18:44.
Malboeuf made 23 saves in the win, while George stopped 28 taking the loss. Kitchener outshot Owen Sound 33-26 while going 2 for 6 on the power play; the Attack finished 0 for 3.
Owen Sound continues a three-in-three with a home game against the Brantford Bulldogs Saturday night. Game time is 7 p.m., at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre. Sunday afternoon, the Kingston Frontenacs are in town.
GLOVES OFF
Attack forward Jackson Stewart had his first fight of the season in the loss. He crunched Tanner Lam with a big hit in the defensive zone just under five minutes into the second period. Simon Motew took exception and came over to drop the gloves with Stewart. Motew was given an instigator penalty on the play, but the Attack didn’t get a power play opportunity as the fight came on a delayed penalty call against Sam Sedley.