On a milestone night for Ethan Burroughs, the Owen Sound Attack took care of business against the Niagara Ice Dogs.
Burroughs scored twice and added an assist to surpass 100 career points in the Ontario Hockey League, as the Attack cruised past the Ice Dogs 5-1 Wednesday night at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines.
Colby Barlow, Cedrick Guindon and and Kaleb Lawrence also scored for the Attack (19-14-3-1), which improved to 10-0 this season in games they lead after the first period.
Juan Copeland had the lone goal for Niagara (8-20-5-1), which dropped its fourth straight game.
Landen Hookey and Jackson Stewart both suited up and made their debuts for Owen Sound after being acquired in separate deals with the Soo Greyhounds and Kingston Frontenacs ahead of Tuesday’s OHL trade deadline.
They came as advertised. Tough and physical.
Hookey dropped the gloves with Christopher O’Flaherty and also added an assist in the game. Stewart was held off the scoresheet but could be seen regularly during his shifts thundering opposing blueliners into the boards in the offensive zone.
Deni Goure also made his return to the Attack lineup after missing the past seven games with an upper-body injury. He finished with an assist and a plus-1 rating, skating on a line with Barlow and Gavin Bryant.
The Attack jumped ahead of the Ice Dogs early and never looked back.
Burroughs opened the scoring 1:19 after puck drop. He added another just over seven minutes later – recording his 100th career point in the OHL while putting the Attack up 2-0.
The Ice Dogs cut the Attack lead to one prior to the midway mark of the second period. Copeland deflected a Ryan Vannetten shot past Nick Chenard to make it 2-1.
That was as close as Niagara would get.
Lawrence restored Owen Sound’s two-goal lead with 34 seconds to go in the second period, deflecting a Nolan Seed shot from the left point past Flores.
The officials reviewed the play for a possible high-stick, but determined Lawrence kept it down and ruled it a good goal.
The Attack kept it coming in the third, scoring 1:23 in. Seed rushed into the offensive zone on the right-wind and then found Barlow streaking towards the net, who got his stick on a pass and directed it past Flores before barrelling into the post. 4-1 Attack.
Barlow hobbled over a bit during the goal celebration after the high-speed collision with the post, but was back out for his next shift.
Guindon made it a 5-1 game at 9:24, depositing a rebound after Flores denied Servac Petrovsky in tight.
Chenard made 23 saves in the win, while Flores stopped 37 taking the loss. The Attack outshot Niagara 42-24 while going 0 for 2 on the power play; The Ice Dogs finished 0 for 4.
The Attack will close out their stretch of five straight road games Thursday night in Erie. The Otters (12-20-0-3) are on a four-game losing streak and have just one win in their past 10 games.
Puck drop in Erie Thursday night is set for 6:30 p.m.
The game can be heard live on 560 CFOS with Kia of Owen Sound-Terry’s Trailer Service Bearadio.