At one point Sunday afternoon the Kingston Frontenacs led Owen Sound 4-0, and although three straight goals from the Attack put that game in doubt, the black and gold were able to hang on for a 4-3 victory.
The win ended the Fronts’ 4-game winning streak and improved their record to 4-7-0-0.
Kingston forward, Matthew Soto scored twice on Sunday, two powerplay goals 1:02 apart in the first period. Soto believed despite the late-game scare, they deserved the win.
“We knew we were capable of doing it,” Soto told the Owen Sound broadcast. “That’s a good team, they put a lot of pressure on us, but I think we handled it well and ultimately came out with the win.”
The Frontenacs were coming off a four-game losing streak in which they were outscored 24-3.
“We didn’t want to go 0-3 this weekend,” Soto said. “We felt we were better and could win more games. We did a good job of that today and I’m just happy we won.”
“We’re going to try and build off of this. I think we can win a lot more games than we have been doing.”
The first two-thirds of the first period was relatively uneventful until Quinton Burns laid out an Attack forward with a huge, clean hit. But Owen Sound’s Landon Hookey took offence and then dropped the gloves with Burns, getting the better of the Frontenacs defenceman.
Then Maleek McGowan was taken down on a slew-foot from the Attack’s Jake Crawford. He was given a 5-minute major and a game misconduct on the play.
On the ensuing power play during an offensive zone rush, the Frontenac’s Paul Ludwinski found Tyler Savard who promptly sent it across the crease to Matthew Soto who was able to direct the puck into the net, opening the scoring and giving Kingston a 1-0 lead.
Soto would strike again on the same power-play, taking the puck down in front of the net bringing it from his backhand to his forehand and flipping it up and over Corbin Votary to extend the lead.
The first period would end with the Frontenacs up 2-0 and up 14-7 in shots.
Mascon Vaccari made an incredible save in the 9th minute of the second period. After losing his footing and falling over, a sprawling Vaccari got his leg up just high enough to stop the puck from hitting the net.
Kingston extended its lead with 4:17 left in the middle frame as Nathan Poole skated over the blue line into the offensive zone and fired a wrist shot over Votary’s shoulder to make it a 3-0 game. The goal was his second of the season.
Owen Outwater made it a 4-0 game at the 17:35 mark of the second, firing a shot from the right faceoff circle and through traffic. Votary got a piece of it but it bounced off the ice and into the net. Owen Sound would make a goaltending change after the play.
The Attack would finally get on the board with 1:09 to go, Madden Steen took a feed in the slot and fired a wrist shot through Vaccari to make it a 4-1 game.
Then, with 5 seconds to go, Sam Sedley let go of a one-time shot from the left circle and over Vaccari, cutting the Frontenacs lead in half, and pushing the score to 4-2 heading into the second intermission.
Finally towards the end of the third period, with a 6 to 4 man advantage, Owen Sound’s Cedrick Guindon found the back of the net to make it a one-goal game. But that’s as close as the Attack would get to tying the game and Kingston would take the win.
Owen Sound outshot Kingston 35-26 in the loss.
Matthew Soto and his 2 goals were the game’s First Star, Tyler Savard was Second with two assists, and Owen Sound’s Madden Steen was named the Third Star.
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