Jared Woolley scored the winner 33 seconds into overtime, as the London Knights downed the Owen Sound Attack 5-4 in Ontario Hockey League action Wednesday night at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.
Owen Sound rallied down two in the third period to force overtime, but couldn’t walk away with a win over the Knights.
Woolley finished with a pair of goals for London (18-12-3). Andoni Fimis also scored a pair, and Braiden Clark had one.
Elliot Arnett, Nick Sykora, Cole Zurawski and Pierce Mbuyi scored for the Attack (17-14-1-3), which dropped their fifth straight game.
“We were fortunate enough to get the point tonight. I loved our kids’ determined to come back, down 4-2 going into the third period to make it 4-4,” Attack Head Coach Scott Wray says. “And then 33 seconds in (overtime) they score, with not stopping at the house. And if we stop right where we’re supposed to, it’s null and void.”
The Attack led 2-0 early in the second period. David Bedkowski energized the crowd inside the Bayshore with a bone-crushing open-ice hit inside the Attack blueline on Clark. Owen Sound’s captain was then jumped by Linus Funck, and Bedkowski took him down in a fight.
Funck was assessed an instigator penalty, sending the Attack to their second power play of the game. Lenny Greenberg got a point shot through that deflected off Mbuyi and past Aleksei Medvedev 2:04 into the second, putting the Attack ahead 2-0.
Then things unraveled. Fimis scored at 6:07 on a Knights’ power play to cut Owen Sound’s lead to 2-1. And just nine seconds later, it was in the back of the Attack net again. Right off the faceoff, Clark took the puck into the zone and fired a wrist shot past Trenten Bennett glove side to tie the game 2-2.
Fimis and Woolley would add goals before the second period buzzer sounded, as London scored four unanswered to take a 4-2 lead.
The Attack would rally in the third. First Arnett scored at 8:34 to bring the Attack within one. And then it was Zurawski with the late-game heroics. He knocked a puck down in the neutral zone, skated in on the left side and then ripped a wrist shot over the glove of Medvedev with 2:27 remaining to tie it 4-4.
Medvedev made 31 saves in the win, while Bennett stopped 33 taking the loss. The Knights outshot the Attack 38-35 while going 1 for 5 on the power play; Owen Sound finished 1 for 2.
Next up for the Attack is their final game before the OHL’s Christmas break, Friday on the road against Kitchener Rangers.