Owen Sound Attack forward Cole Zurawski. (photo courtesy OHL images)
It’s five straight wins for the Owen Sound Attack.
Cole Zurawski and Noah Nelson each finished with a pair of goals and each scored in the third period, as the Attack broke a 3-3 deadlock and went on to beat the Guelph Storm 6-3 in Ontario Hockey League action Friday night at Sleeman Centre.
Lenny Greenberg and David Bedkowski also scored for the Attack (9-2), which extended its winning streak to five.
Jaakko Wycisk scored twice for Guelph (3-5-2), and Carter Stevens had one.
The Attack never trailed in the game. But they also never led by two until late in the third. Zurawski buried a power play goal with just over six minutes remaining to make it 5-3 Owen Sound. Tristan Delisle saucered a pass over to the second-year forward just inside the faceoff dot right side, and Zurawski whipped a wrist shot past Guelph Storm goaltender Colin Ellsworth.
Delisle finished with a pair of assists to extend his point-streak to start the season to 11 games. He now leads the OHL in scoring with 17 points in 11 games.
The game was tied 1-1 after one, and 2-2 after two. The Attack kept taking the lead, Guelph kept tying it.
Greenberg make it 1-0 Attack just over three minutes into the game. Zurawski took the puck down low and deked down below the goal-line around Ellsworth, then sent the puck back through the crease for Greenberg to bang in.
Guelph tied it at 12:31 of the first on Wycisk’s first of the night.
Owen Sound would regain the lead 3:32 into the second. Nelson gathered a puck on the right board in the offensive zone and moved toward the high slot. He went down, but still let off a wrist shot while on a knee. He got it past Ellsworth’s glove, 2-1 Attack.
Guelph would tie just under three minutes later. It was Wycisk again, scooping up a rebound in front of Trenten Bennett and backhanding the puck over his right pad.
The goal-trading trend continued to start the third. Zurawski put the Attack back in front 4-3 just 1:20 into the third. He skated over the blueline and toe-dragged the puck before unloading a high wrist shot past Ellsworth on the blocker side. 3-2 Attack.
The Storm would tie again around three minutes later, as Stevens banked a puck into the net from near the crease.
Nelson scored his second of the game at 10:42. The trio of Nelson, Easton Mikus and Landon Jackman had a lengthy shift in the offensive zone. Jackman held the puck in near the blueline and found Nelson alone in front. He got a pass to him, and the overage forward softly slid the puck low through the five-hole to put the Attack back in front 4-3.
Zurawski’s power play goal followed, and then Bedkowski would add an empty-netter late in the third.
Bennett made 34 saves in the win, while Ellsworth stopped 36 taking the loss. Owen Sound outshot Guelph 42-37 while going 1 for 3 on the power play; the Storm finished 0 for 2.
The Attack and Storm will go at it again Saturday night in the tail end of this home-and-home. It’s a 7 p.m start at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.
STREAKS, STREAKS
The Attack offence kept rolling in Guelph Friday and some players extended point streaks with it. Delisle’s two assists brought his season-long point streak to 11 games. Zurawski had a three-point performance, extending his run of hitting the scoresheet to four games. John Banks also recorded a point for a seventh straight contest.
BUMPS AND BRUISES
Attack forward Jacob Therrien missed his sixth straight game with an upper-body injury. Owen Sound was also without defenceman Noah Roberts on Friday. Attack head coach Scott Wray says he’s tending to some undisclosed minor injuries and is considered day-to-day.