The Attack were undone by a tough five minute stretch in the second period.
Cooper McAslan, Eloan Le Gallic, Carson Harmer and Cohen Bidgood scored unanswered goals in a span of 4:41 near the midway mark of the second period, as the London Knights shook off an early deficit to down the Owen Sound Attack 7-4 in Ontario Hockey League action Friday night at Canada Life Place.
Evan Van Gorp added a pair of goals for London (3-0), and Thomas Zocco also scored.
Harry Nansi scored twice for the Attack (1-2), which led 1-0 after the first period and had a 2-1 lead just over eight minutes into the second period.
Max Delisle and Jake Crawford also scored for Owen Sound.
The Knights broke out for five goals in the second period, turning around a tidy start for the road team as the Attack successfully took a pair of one-goal leads and had killed off three Knights power plays by the early stages of the middle frame.
The four goal outburst in under five minutes turned the tide for the Knights.
“It’s a good learning experience for us. Obviously that’s a very talented team on the other side,” Attack Head Coach Keenan Reynolds says. “And outside of a five-to-seven minute stretch in the second period where we may have lost our composure a little bit, I’m very proud of the effort we brought.”
“Against a team like that you have to bring it for a full 60 minutes,” Reynolds continues. “We’re going to take our lumps tonight and get better.”
The Knights led 5-2 heading into the third, but the Attack battled back to make it a one goal game late.
After the Attack killed off a Knights’ power play, Zurawski picked up his own rebound off the rush and found Delisle on a pass in front of the London net. The Attack second-year forward, who was the fifth overall pick in the 2025 OHL Priority Selection, put a shot by Brian Cooke to cut the lead to 5-3.
Nansi scored his second power play goal of the game with 3:11 remaining to bring the Attack within one. He had the puck in the corner and tried to feather a sauce-pass in front of Mbuyi. The puck caught a skate of a Knights’ defender and deflected low past Cooke to make it 5-4.
That was as close as Owen Sound would get.
Fifty-four seconds later Zocco led a 3-on-1 rush for the Knights and took the puck up the left side, burying a low shot past Ryerson Leenders to restore London’s two-goal advantage.
Van Gorp added an empty-netter with 29 seconds to go.
Cooke made 22 saves in the win, while Leenders stopped 34 taking the loss. The Knights outshot the Attack while going 1 for 7 on the power play; Owen Sound finished 3 for 7.
Next up for the Attack is a home game Saturday night at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre against Guelph Storm. Puck drop is 7 p.m. The pregame show on 89.3 CFOS begins at 6:30 p.m.