It was a tough weekend on the road for the Attack.
Christopher Thibodeau scored twice as part of a four-goal third period for the Flint Firebirds, which broke open a 2-2 game and went on to beat the Owen Sound Attack 6-2 in Ontario Hockey League action Saturday night at the Dort Financial Center.
Nathan Aspinall also scored a pair for Flint (14-6-1), which won its sixth straight game. Kaden Pitre and Xavier Tessier added goals.
Noah Nelson and Tristan Delisle had the goals for Owen Sound (13-8-0-2), which lost both games on its weekend road trip through London and Flint. The Attack have dropped four of their last six.
Flint scored six unanswered goals after falling behind 2-0.
“I don’t think you’re going to win any hockey game generating 15 shots, if that’s even what we had,” says Attack Head Coach Scott Wray. “We’ve got a lot of guys in there that just want to play the same way instead of playing what’s best for the team, and it’s pretty vanilla right now.”
The Attack struck first at 12:37 of the opening period on the power play. Cole Zurawski let a one-time shot go from inside the blue line, Mason Courville made the initial save but left a rebound just outside the crease. Nelson pounced on the loose puck and put a low backhand past Courville’s left pad to make it 1-0 Attack.
Owen Sound would add to its lead early in the second period. A good shift in the offensive zone by the Nansi-Delisle-Mbuyi line. Nansi had the puck in the corner and got it to Mbuyi behind the net, who took a hit to get a backhand pass out front to Delisle. He skated to his left, bobbled the puck, recovered and patiently waited for Courville to go down – taking it wide forehand and then tucking it into a near empty-net. It was 2-0 Attack at 4:44 of the second period.
They held that lead past the midway mark of the frame, then the Firebirds got on the board. Aspinall went on an end-to-end rush, streaking his way through the neutral zone with a deke, and then letting a wrist shot go off the right-wing side that beat Carter George high blocker at 12:28.
All of a sudden the Firebirds were on the board – on a goal that seemed to come almost out of nowhere.
“It’s a missed assignment and then all of a sudden you see the bench deflate. We’re still up in the game,” Wray says. “I don’t understand where that’s crept in. And that’s for us as a staff to figure out.”
The Firebirds would tie the game on a penalty shot late in the second. A mad scramble in front of Owen Sound’s net sent players on both teams piling on top of each other – and on top of George – in the Attack crease. The puck was lost somewhere in the blue paint for several second, then an official over top of the play blew the whistle and pointed to centre. He decided an Attack player closed his hand on the puck in the crease and awarded a penalty shot.
Aspinall took it and scored, skating in on the left side before making a deke backhand and tucking it fivehole past George. 2-2 with 1:06 remaining in the second.
It was all Flint in the third. Thibodeau gave the Firebirds their first lead of the game 1:30 into the third, catching a fortunate bounce in front of the Attack net that came right on his stick – and then putting a shot towards the near post as George slid to his left.
Just over a minute later it was Thibodeau again, firing a shot through two Attack defenders past a screened-George blocker-side to make it 4-2.
Tessier scored at 5:26 of the period to extend Flint’s lead to 5-2.
And then Pitre capped the rally with 2:46 remaining in regulation, stick-handling his way to the Attack net and scoring Flint’s sixth unanswered goal.
Courville made 15 saves in the win, while George stopped 29 taking the loss. The Firebirds outshot the Attack 35-17 while going 0 for 2 on the power play; Owen Sound finished 1 for 3.
Next up for the Attack is a few days off ahead of a three-in-three next weekend, which starts with a road game Friday, Nov. 21 at the Sleeman Centre against Guelph Storm.
Wray says the Attack will look to use the next few days working on getting back to playing with more structure.
“You look at our record, it’s still a respectable record. But we’ve got to get back to boring, structured hockey,” the Attack head coach says. “I feel like when we’re getting up in games we’re throwing our structure out the window and just playing ad-lib. Like I said before, too many guys wanting to play the same way instead of buying into what’s best for the team … we’ve got four days of work ahead of us.”
