A first career road start in the Ontario Hockey League on a Friday night in Kitchener with your team on a five-game losing streak.
That may sound daunting for some goaltenders. Not for Carter George.
The Attack rookie goalie starred, making 48 saves to hold the fort until Colby Barlow came through with the game-winner 1:16 into overtime as Owen Sound beat the Rangers 3-2 Friday night at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
Owen Sound (27-22-4-1) ended a five-game slide with the win. Kitchener (24-26-4-0) dropped its third straight.
The Attack also picked up their first road win since Jan. 27, when they beat Guelph 6-3.
George was dialed in from the get-go. The Rangers outshot the Attack 14-9 in the first period and the 16-year-old netminder kept it a scoreless game.
His biggest save in the first came with around five minutes to go, as Filip Mesar and Carson Rehkopf broke up ice on a short-handed 2-on-1. After the play looked to break down, Mesar was feathered a pass and had a clean look a few steps outside the crease. George stretched out to deny the Montreal Canadiens prospect.
The Attack found the game’s first goal early in the second period.
Matthew Papais connected on the power play, popping a shot past Marco Constantini for his 16th of the season. It was Papais’ third goal in the past three games.
The Rangers fired another 14 shots at George in the second period. The closest they came was a shot of the stick of Francesco Pinelli from the high slot that got past his blocker, but rang off the crossbar and stayed out.
Owen Sound had an opportunity to work on a 5-on-3 power play for 49 seconds early in the third period. Reid Valade was called for delay of game (puck over glass) just over a minute in, with Danny Zhilkin already sitting in the box.
The Attack couldn’t capitalize. And from there it was all Kitchener.
The Rangers peppered George with shots in the third. A fluky one finally got through with 7:55 to go. Pinelli misfired on a shot towards the net that still slid towards the crease area, and Francesco Arcuri managed to get his stick on it and watched on as it slowly made its way through George’s five-hole. Tie game, 1-1.
Less than two minutes later the Attack regained the lead.
Deni Goure skated into the offensive zone 1-on-3. He chipped the puck up the middle, and Hunter Brzustewicz had some trouble getting a handle on it. Goure swooped in through the three Rangers to find the puck and flick a shot past Constantini to make it 2-1.
The Rangers tied it again with 4:30 to play. Brzustewicz held in a puck at the right-point and then put a shot into traffic in front of the net. Zhilkin deflected it past George to tie it 2-2.
The Rangers outshot Owen Sound 21-8 in the third period. But the Attack netminder held things down and helped his team to overtime.
It took 1:16 for Barlow to end it. He skated into the offensive zone and loaded up a heavy shot from the high slot that beat Constantini high on the glove hand side.
It was the Attack captain’s 39th goal of the season. The referees took a brief look at the play to ensure it was onside, as Goure hugged the blueline on the Barlow zone entry. The goal was confirmed, sealing the win for Owen Sound.
George made 48 saves in the win, while Constantini stopped 25 taking the loss. The Rangers outshot the Attack 50-28 while going 0 for 3 on the power play; Owen Sound finished 1 for 5.
Owen Sound closes out a stretch of four straight games against divisional opponents on Saturday, when they host the Western Conference leading London Knights (40-14-1-0). Game time is 7:30 p.m., at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.
GEORGE, GEORGE, GEORGE
Carter George improved to 5-2 in seven appearances in his young OHL career. The third-round pick in the 2022 priority selection has some eye-popping numbers for the Attack: a 2.13 GAA and .934 save percentage.
He was making his first career start on the road Friday in Kitchener. George did have one previous appearance on the road earlier in the season – his OHL debut. That was back on Oct. 27, when the Thunder Bay native came on in relief in the second period in Barrie and stopped all 14 shots he faced and then denied all eight Colts players in the shootout, in the Attack’s biggest comeback win of the season 6-5 over Barrie.
THE AP STATUS
George played in his seventh game for the Attack on Friday. As first reported by Greg Cowan of the Owen Sound Sun-Times, George is technically an Associated Player on the Owen Sound roster, on loan from the Junior B St. Mary’s Lincolns. That means he can only appear in a maximum of 10 OHL games until St. Mary’s season ends.
He has three to go until hitting that 10-game threshold for the Attack.
St. Mary’s closes out its regular season schedule on Sunday against LaSalle. It’s safe to say some Attack fans may be hoping for a hasty playoff exit for the Lincolns to free up their rookie netminder for the OHL club.
SLUMP BUSTERS
Dating back to the 2021-22 season, the Attack have had three losing-streaks five games or longer (8, 6 and 5). All three skids have come to an end with wins over the Kitchener Rangers. Last season, the Attack ended an eight-game slide with a 6-2 win on Feb. 25, 2022. This season, Owen Sound ended their six-game losing streak in December, beating Kitchener 3-2 in overtime on Dec. 28, 2022. And the latest five-game slide ended on Friday, Feb. 24, another 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers.
GOURE GETS IT GOING
Deni Goure had been held pointless in his past five games coming into Friday night’s contest in Kitchener. The Attack forward ended the recent funk, recording a goal and an assist in a tight-checking game in Kitchener.
40 WATCH
Barlow’s overtime winner was his 39th goal of the season. He’s one away from the big 40 mark. The last Attack player to record 40 or more goals in a season was Nick Suzuki. He had 42 in the 2017-18 campaign.
