Sam Sedley made an immediate impact in his return to the Owen Sound Attack lineup.
After missing the past four games with an upper-body injury, Sedley had three assists Thursday night as the Attack downed the Peterborough Petes 4-1 in Ontario Hockey League action at the Peterborough Memorial Centre.
Colby Barlow, Deni Goure, Ethan Burroughs and Servac Petrovsky scored for the Attack (19-19-2-1), which ended a four-game losing streak.
Aiden Young had the lone goal for Peterborough (15-20-4-1), which dropped its sixth straight game.
The Attack led 1-0 after the first. Barlow opened the scoring at 11:08. After an offensive zone faceoff loss, the Attack held the puck in as Sedley knocked it down at the right-point. He passed to Burroughs, who skated down the board and then threw a pass out front. Barlow managed to get enough on it to put in through the legs of Liam Sztuska.
Sztuska was busy throughout the game, keeping the Petes close as the Attack peppered the net. Owen Sound ended up with 49 shots.
The Petes tied it 1-1 early in the second period. The play started with some good hustle from Ryder McIntyre, who broke up ice and used his feet to negate an icing call. He then moved the puck to Chase Lefebvre at the left side of the net. Lefebvre found Aiden Young wide open at the opposite post, and he batted into the open net to tie it at 3:42.
The Attack retook the lead less than a minute later on the power play. Goure walked in from the top of the circle left side, and just unloaded a big wrist shot over the glove of Sztuska to make it 2-1.
Owen Sound made it a 3-1 game at 6:52 of the third period. With the Petes on the power play, Sedley knocked down a puck behind his own net and just tried to ice it. It deflected off a Petes defender near the Attack blueline, right to Burroughs in stride. He was sprung for a shorthanded breakaway. The overage forward made no mistake, putting a wrist shot over Sztuska’s glove to make it 3-1.
It was Owen Sound’s sixth shorthanded goal-for this season.
But the Petes were still close. And George was forced to make a big save on a penalty shot with 4:35 remaining in the third.
The Petes were awarded the penalty shot after James Petrovski was called for covering the puck in the crease.
Brennan Faulkner was given the opportunity to go 1-on-1 with George. He started down the right side and then cut towards the net, moving the puck backhand to forehand and trying a quick shot. George stuck with him and turned the attempt aside with his blocker.
The young Attack netminder then rose, looked to his bench and waved both his arms to the side, signalling “no goal” after making the big save.
Petrovsky would add an empty-net goal.
George made 22 saves in the win, while Sztuska stopped 45 taking the loss. The Attack outshot the Petes 49-23 while going 1 for 1 on the power play; Peterborough finished 0 for 3.
Next up for the Attack is a stop in Kingston Friday night to face the Frontenacs (20-19-1).
THE RETURN
Thursday’s game was the first meeting between the Attack and Petes since the two teams made a trade earlier this month that saw Konnor Smith and Sam McCue end up in Owen Sound, and Nico Addy and Martin Matejicek in Peterborough. Smith had an assist, the lone one of the bunch to get on the scoresheet.
HOMECOMING GAME
It was a homecoming game for Attack forward Jackson Stewart. He grew up in nearby Norwood, and in comments prior to the affair spoke fondly of some memories he had attending Petes games as a kid.
SEDLEY CLOSES IN ON ASSISTS RECORD
Sam Sedley’s three assists Thursday night put him up to 129 helpers in his OHL career. He is now just one assist back of tying Santino Centorame for most assists by a defenceman in Owen Sound franchise history.
