2 weeks Ago By Greg Cowan
Article content Sam McCue’s knucklepuck snapped the Kitchener Rangers’ winning streak at 10 games and sent a shockwave through the nearly 3,000 fans inside the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre for Hockey Fights Cancer night. The Toronto Maple Leafs prospect didn’t get all of the one-timer, but he got enough to net his first career game-winning goal in overtime and give the Attack a 5-4 victory over the first-place Blueshirts. “I’ve only dreamt of an overtime winner,” McCue said.
Less than a week after Easton Cowan dropped to a knee and celebrated with “the heartbreaker” after the London Knights beat Owen Sound 2-1 in overtime, McCue reclaimed the Bayshore with his version of Patrick Kane’s celebration, sliding on one knee from the top of the face-off circle in the offensive zone to the far blue line. “I was on Attack Rap and I said if I ever score an overtime winner I’ll do a heartbreaker,” McCue said. He got his chance and may have broken Alan Lyszczarczyk’s team record for the longest celebratory slide.
What a difference a week makes. “A month ago we would have unravelled. I think a lot of the young guys have grown.
Emotional maturity is something we’re working on,” said Attack assistant coach Brandon Shaw. “These are character-building games.” Owen Sound played perhaps their best 40 minutes of the season to open the game and took a 4-1 lead into the third period against the top-dog Rangers.
But that lead quickly evaporated as the Attack sat back on their heels. “It’s about teaching the group about what it takes to hold on to a lead. You hold the red line.
You hold the blue line. You don’t back in and allow them to attack,” Shaw said. Trent Swick tied the game with 57 seconds left, with the Rangers’ net empty, on a play that was clearly offside.
However, because the puck was lofted high into the air, its location couldn’t be seen on video replay, and the officials had no visual evidence to overturn the call on the ice after a lengthy review. Shaw said that, at the end of the day, the Hockey Gods restored balance to the universe. “The puck doesn’t lie.
We get into overtime and McCue fans on the shot. Maybe if he gets all of it the puck doesn’t go in. The puck doesn’t lie,” he said.
With the win, Owen Sound improves to 5-8-2-2 with points in their last three games while the Rangers fall to 13-2-2-1. Landen Hookey opened the scoring at the 7:22 mark with his second shorthanded goal of the season. Tanner Lam tied the game moments later with a bullet of a shot off a two-on-one rush.
It was all Owen Sound in the second period. Antonio Tersigni scored his eighth goal of the season when he slammed home a cross-ice feed from Jake Crawford. Just over a minute later, with the Attack on a five-on-three power play, James Petrovski set up McCue for a one-timer from the circle and McCue got all of that one to put Owen Sound up 3-1.
Shaw said Owen Sound changed its power play set recently, and McCue seems to be enjoying his role as the team’s triggerman. “We were just joking about that in the room. Colby Barlow.
That’s his spot. I’ve been working on my one-timers because it wasn’t very good, but I tucked two tonight,” he said. Braedyn Rogers made it 4-1 when his shot from the point weaved through bodies to beat Rangers rookie goaltender Jason Schaubel.
“The first 40 minutes is exactly how we want to play,” Shaw said. “It got away from us a bit in the third.” Luca Romano tucked his 10th goal of the season with the Rangers on the power play at the 4:44 mark of the third period to cut Owen Sound’s lead in half.
Ten minutes later, Alexander Bilecki danced through the teeth of Owen Sound’s defence and dished to Romano out wide. The NHL draft prospect beat Carter George high glove for back-to-back goals. With just under a minute to play, the Rangers were struggling to gain the zone, they lofted the puck high on a play that looked offside but wasn’t whistled down.
The players battled for possession along the wall before Jakub Chromiak slid a pass cross-ice to a wide-open Trent Swick. Swick’s pump fake got George down and he put the puck into the top of the net to tie the game. In overtime, Swick skated through McCue’s stick and dislodged the lumber.
He was called for interference giving Owen Sound its sixth power play of the game. Leading to McCue’s dream ending. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.
Being on the ice in big moments . . .
on the power play in overtime,” McCue said. George made 31 saves on 35 shots. Schaubel stopped 33 of 38 shots against.
Tristan Delisle notched a pair of helpers in the game and has four points in his team’s last two contests. The Owen Sound Attack are back in action Sunday afternoon when they’ll host the Sudbury Wolves inside the Bayshore. Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.
m. Antonio Tersigni scored three goals in his first 102 Ontario Hockey League games. He’s scored eight already this season.
The former second-round pick said he’s not a results-driven person, but it must feel nice for the spark-plug winger to finally see the fruits of a challenging few years. “You come here and you’re expecting to put up points like in minor midget and that’s not the case for a lot of kids. It’s kind of tough,” he said this week before Wednesday night’s game against the Sarnia Sting.
“It has been a crazy two years for me. A lot of ups and downs and a lot of learning.” In his first two years with the Attack, Tersigni struggled to carve out a consistent role with the team, but he’s always been known as a hardworking and consistent teammate.
He credits his sports psychology coach with keeping an even keel throughout the trials and tribulations. “He’s been a huge help for me just to keep my mind straight, to not dwell on the bad stuff that sometimes comes with hockey but to look toward the bright side and continue to push,” Tersigni said. “We don’t like to look at results, just the process, and that kind of ties into my last two years in this league.
” The Woodbridge native said leaving his family at 16 and adjusting to life in the OHL wasn’t easy, but he doesn’t regret a thing. “I don’t think I would change anything. I would just learn from it like I’ve learned, that’s the reason I am who I am today,” he said.
As for something he’s learned while struggling to gain a foothold in the league, Tersigni said he liked a recent quote from NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers who said “don’t listen to criticism from someone you wouldn’t go to for advice.” “I know a lot of people look at results, stats, that kind of thing, but a lot more goes into it. Right now I’m just trying to keep a level head,” he said.
The Owen Sound Attack’s Hockey Fights Cancer Night presented by Bruce Power featured the Attack wearing specially designed jerseys with goaltender Carter George donning a specially designed mask. An online jersey auction (web.dashapp.
io/team/owensoundattack) ends on Nov. 10 at 6 p.m.
Funds raised Saturday night, including $25,000 donated by Bruce Power, will go to the Bluewater Division of the Canadian Cancer Society for their transportation program..
