It was a pretty nice start to the season for the Attack: A comeback win in London.
Jacob Therrien scored on the power play with 28 seconds left in overtime as the Attack rallied from two goals down in the third to beat the London Knights 3-2 in their 2025-26 Ontario Hockey League regular season opener at Canada Life Place Friday night.
Therrien took a pass from Cole Zurawski at the side of the goal and then moved toward the front of the net and fired a low shot past the glove of Sebastien Gatto, lifting the Attack to a dramatic win in his debut with his new OHL club.
“I think it’s a huge win for our group. Especially (with) all the hype around London, and all that stuff,” Therrien says. “But they’re just another team wearing another colour. And we’ve got to show our presence this year and start pushing them around a bit.”
Nicholas Sykora and Zurawski also scored for the Attack, which trailed 2-0 after 40 minutes before rallying in the third.
Zurawski cut the Knights’ lead to 2-1 just over three minutes into the third, taking a pass from Noah Nelson in front of the net and getting just enough of the puck to chip it past Gatto as London’s goaltender sprawled to his right.
Sykora then tied the game with 5:46 remaining in the third, whipping a perfectly placed wrist shot past the glove of Gatto and just under the bar. His first OHL goal tied the game for the Attack, and came on the power play. Owen Sound as 0 for 7 in the game on the man advantage to that point.
“Like I said (in the room), who’d have thought the power play was going to win us the game? Because it just wasn’t on,” Attack Head Coach Scott Wray says. “Again, it’s a lot of guys playing together that haven’t played together in some time.”
“It’s going to take some time. But we’ve got a full week off now to get ready for Barrie,” Wray continues. “And a key focus all week is going to be the power play.”
Cohen Bidgood and Jaxon Cover scored the goals for London. Both came in the second period. Bidgood made it 1-0 just over five mintues into the second with a low shot off the rush from the right wing that beat Trenten Bennett. Cover went high over the left shoulder of Bennett at 12:57 to make it 2-0.
Bennett made 45 saves in the win, while Gatto stopped 25 taking the loss. The Knights outshot the Attack 47-28 while going 0 for 5 on the power play; Owen Sound finished 2 for 9.
CAPTAIN BEAR
David Bedkowski took the ice in London Friday with some new stitching on his jersey… the letter C.
The 18-year-old Buffalo Sabres prospect becomes the 29th captain in Owen Sound’s OHL history.
“It’s an incredible honour. The amazing captains that have come before me for this franchise, I’m just grateful for the opportunity,” Bedkowski says. “It comes with a lot of responsibility and I’m excited to do my absolute best to lead this team this year, and help some of our younger guys and just lead by example and put everything on the line in the ultimate goal of winning a championship. We have an exciting group.”
Wray says it was an easy choice, and the entire group knew Bedkowski would be the team’s captain coming into the season.
“He just everything that a captain does on a daily basis. He’s a pro. He’s in the gym first thing before anybody else doing his maintenance. He’s a vocal leader. He does everything that I would want to do as a captain myself,” the Attack head coach says.
THAT’S DONE
Owen Sound’s win over the Knights Friday was its first win in London in nearly three years. The last time an Attack team won at Canada Life Place… well it was known as Budweiser Gardens. Owen Sound teams had lost 11 straight games in London. The last win for an Attack team was, coincidentally, a season-opener on Sept. 30, 2022. That was a 5-3 victory for the Attack to start the 2022-23 campaign. Owen Sound’s last win over a London team came later that season, 7-5 on Feb. 25, 2023 at the Bayshore. The Knights won 20 straight over Owen Sound since then, regular season and playoffs. That ended Friday.
BEARS AT NHL CAMPS
The Attack were without goaltenders Carter George and Matthew Koprowski, and forward Harry Nansi Friday night. George is still at training camp with his NHL club the Los Angeles Kings, and Koprowski with the St. Louis Blues after receiving a free agent invite to attend camp. Nansi, who was a fifth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in June, also remains at NHL camp.