Nick Suzuki propels the Attack past the Knights with a big third period

In three of the first five meetings between the London Knights and the Owen Sound Attack, a shootout was needed to decide a winner.

Nick Suzuki made sure one wasn’t needed in the last meeting.  The London native had two goals and two assists as part of a five-goal third period, and a 7-3 Owen Sound Attack victory over the London Knights.

In a game that raced back and forth in front of a sell-out Saturday night crowd at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre, Owen Sound played catch-up on three different occasions before taking their first lead and making it last.

London forward Alex Formenton showed off hisspeed just over six minutes into the game as he came flying past a defender at the Owen Sound blue line, drove to the net and beat Canadiens’ prospect Michael McNiven with a snap shot through the pads to make it 1-0.

Since December 5, the Attack are 22-2-0-2 and a big part of that, especially recently, has been their power play.  It has risen to number one in the Ontario Hockey League and it cashed in a goal to tie the game at 14:59.  Londoner Ethan Szypula found Attack rookie, Maksim Susko at the side of the London net and he beat Jordan Kooy for his 14^th goal of the year.

The teams hit copy-and-paste for the second period as a turnover in centre ice resulted in Liam Foudy racing across the Owen Sound blue line, and Cole Tymkin steaming toward the net.  Foudy attempted to feed a puck in front, but it hit off a leg and went behind McNiven and London was up by a goal.

The Attack power play cashed in right off a faceoff as Susko got the puck to the Knight net and Cordell James fought off a check to score and push things to the third tied 2-2.

London had to kill off an Owen Sound man advantage for the first two minutes of the third period and did it successfully and then got a goal to go ahead for a third time.

Robert Thomas got to a puck in behind the Attack net and drew some attention to himself, as he delayed along the boards and then made his way into the left corner, allowing Victor Mete to sneak in unguarded from the blue line.  Thomas fed Mete and he scored his 13^th goal of the season to put London in front yet again.

London went to the penalty kill at the 7:10 mark of the third period and came close to keeping the Attack power play at bay.  As the clock struck 9:10, James lifted in his second goal of the game and the game was tied 3-3.

The Knights went to the man advantage less than three minutes later and created a couple of early chances, but Londoner Nick Suzuki got a puck into centre ice, skated it inside the London blue line, cut across the high slot and buried a short-handed goal to give Owen Sound their first lead of the game, 4-3.

Suzuki got to a loose puck in Knights territory just over five minutes later and wired it in to put Owen Sound up by two.

Nineteen seconds later, he combined with Kevin Hancock to find Jonah Gadjovich at the side of the net and it was 6-3 for the Attack.

Petrus Palmu scored a last power play goal in the final minute for Owen Sound to send the home crowd away happy.

The Attack outshot London 50-34.

The Erie Otters scored five second period goals and beat Barrie 7-3.  They now lead the Knights by six points for first place overall in the OHL standings.  Both teams have ten games remaining and both will be in action on Sunday.

The Knights will play their third game in less than 47 hours when they visit the Guelph Storm on Sunday afternoon.  The pregame show begins at 1:30 on AM 980 and at player.am980.ca