So it’s been a year. Exactly one year since the Owen Sound Attack won the Ontario Hockey League Championship, beating the St Mike’s Majors 3-2 in overtime in Game 7 to win the Robertson Cup.
The memories of that moment, that game, that day, will be warm and long lasting, especially for Attack fans.
But as the cliche goes, life goes on. And hockey life goes on. So, to that end, I tried to track the path of the participants.
Of course in a Major irony, both of the head coaches; Mark Reeds of Owen Sound and Dave Cameron of Mississauga, ended up sharing a bench in the NHL under Paul MacLean with the Ottawa Senators.
James Boyd replaced Cameron as Coach & General Manager of the Majors. Terry Virtue returned to the Attack, this time as Associate Coach to Greg Ireland and departed from Owen Sound recently.
There were 40 players dressed in Game 7, 21 who returned to the Ontario Hockey League on a full time basis.
Of those 21 returnees, 7 were traded; Fritsch, Petgrave & Schemitsch from Owen Sound, Anderson, Schoenmakers, Cramarossa & Mayer out of St Mike’s.
4 of the 6 overagers in Game 7, including Liam Heelis and Matt Stanisz of the Attack, went off to school and played CIS Hockey
There were two CHL Imports in Game 7; Roman Berdnikov & Max Kitsyn. Both returned to Russia and are listed with K.H.L. experience
Robby Mignardi and Jesse Blacker of the Attack advanced to play in the AHL while five others including Attack captain Garrett Wilson split their time between the AHL & the ECHL.
Two Majors, Casey Cizikas with the Islanders and Devante Smith-Pelly with the Ducks eventually made to the NHL as rookies
Joey Hishon never got the chance, missing a whole year, due to a Brayden McNabb elbow in the Memorial Cup.
Andrew Shaw had the most successful jump to the NHL, but technically, he didn’t play in Game 7.
And in an irony, I can’t find where the backups for Game 7, Michael Zador & Michael Audette, got to.
It seems like yesterday, but even in the span of one short year, the hockey lives of 40 players and 4 coaches have expanded outwards from Game 7 of the OHL Final last year
I’m Fred Wallace