It was another shootout loss during the silly season for the Scenic City Skaters on Thursday night.
It feels like the Owen Sound Attack have been playing preseason hockey games for, well, forever. In their fifth tune-up contest already, the Bears dropped a 4-3 decision to the Brampton Steelheads.
The teams were tied 3-3 after regulation, and because the OHL doesn’t play three-on-three overtime periods during the season’s prologue, the game went straight to a shootout.
Bruce County’s Dillon Atkinson was the only Bear to bulge the mesh behind Trout goaltender Neilan Johnson.
Dillon Atkison hits Sean Matthew Goyette in the first period as the Owen Sound Attack play the Brampton Steelheads in preseason action inside the Bayshore on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. Greg Cowan/The Sun Times
Nathan Amidovski solved Matthew Koprowski, and Kieran Witkowski won the game with a bullet of a shot.
Of course, none of this matters, other than to say Brampton thoroughly outshot, and some may say, outplayed Owen Sound through 40 minutes. Perhaps that’s because a bulk of Owen Sound’s players departed for NHL prospect camps this week, but nobody wants to waste an excuse during the preseason.
Like the cat on the clothesline, Owen Sound hung on and managed to claw back in the third period.
Max Delisle continued a strong preseason performance with a goal and an assist.
Cole Zurawski, who entered the contest leading the OHL in preseason scoring, notched two helpers.
True rookie defenceman Max Fransen netted his second goal, and newcomer Cam Merrick scored for Owen Sound.
Dillon Atkison hits Sean Matthew Goyette in the first period as the Owen Sound Attack play the Brampton Steelheads in preseason action inside the Bayshore on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. Greg Cowan/The Sun Times
Keaton Ardagh, Troy Patton and Peter Green netted markers for the Steelheads.
Next up, the merciful end to an extended introductory preamble in North Bay on Saturday, when the Bayshore Boys will take on the Battalion inside the Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens at 4 p.m.
Sheamus Gunn pesters Peter Green behind the net as the Owen Sound Attack play the Brampton Steelheads in preseason action inside the Bayshore on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. Greg Cowan/The Sun Times
The games count for real beginning on Friday, Sept. 18, when the Owen Sound Attack will travel to Kitchener to take on the defending Memorial Cup champions inside the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
The Owen Sound Attack open up the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre to regular-season action on Saturday, Sept. 19, against Kitchener.
NOTES
BRUCE COUNTY BOY — Dillon Atkinson is the first hockey player from Grey-Bruce to play for the Owen Sound Attack since Kurtis MacDermid left for the Erie Otters in early 2014.
It’s a good story. For Atkinson. For the Owen Sound Attack. For the Greater Ontario Hockey League, where the 18-year-old played the past two seasons in Tier II with the St. Catharines Falcons. And for the Grey-Bruce Highlanders and those currently playing locally who dream of one day playing in the OHL.
Atkinson was never drafted. The Saugeen Shores product was passed over in his draft year and headed straight to St. Catharines. He was slated to be their captain this season, before he signed on in Owen Sound.
It was in St. Kitts that Owen Sound Attack President and GM Tyler Nother first watched the player while working with Newport as a player agent.
“As an agent, you’re always asking the coaches who is taking a step, and the answer was always Dillon Atkinson,” Nother told The Sun Times. “Really, we’re just looking to bring in really good people who are going to help drive our culture forward.”
It was never a slam dunk.
Nother said he was honest when speaking with Atkinson this summer. Owen Sound had a lot of returning players up front, and as a free agent he’d need to beat out several players the team invested draft picks in 2025 and 2026.
Atkinson, too, had other suitors, but at the end of the day, the dream to play in the rink where he grew up watching the game was too good to pass up, and it worked out for everyone in the end.
“Who knows, depending on Dillon’s development and how things go, he could end up being a leader for us and driving this culture forward,” Nother said. “He’s going to be given a good shot here . . . it’s a really good story.
Max Delisle, a former fifth-overall pick, said Atkinson’s work ethic was apparent immediately.
“He’s such a hard-working guy. To see him succeed and sign, it’s unreal. It just makes you happy. You love to see a guy like that who works his ass off finally get the recognition and the opportunity.”
SMALL WORLD — Small player. Small world.
Tyler Nother and Alex Taylor both played for the Halton Hurricanes, and both were coached by a member of the Wood family.
Jake Wood coached Taylor with Halton, and Jake’s father coached Nother.
Wood and Taylor both went to the Frederick Gunn School. Nother thought about attending the Connecticut prep school before ultimately deciding to play in the OHL.
All that to say, Nother had a pretty good idea about the five-foot-eight forward before he ever got to Owen Sound. Still, he and others were blown away.
“He’s flying around, making plays, scoring goals, he wins battles, and our scouts immediately were like, this guy has something, he’s really good,” Nother said.
The Owen Sound Attack signed the 11th-round pick in 2025 earlier this week.
“He just kept performing. He kept doing well. We’re running this team as a meritocracy. You get what you earn,” Nother said.
HARD TO COMPETE WITH KHL — When the Owen Sound Attack selected Mikhail Melikov in this past summer’s CHL Import Draft, he was fresh off a season where he blew the doors off the Russian equivalent of Canada’s major junior hockey.
The five-foot-ten winger, who is apparently a world-class bandy player as well, and his agency expressed an interest in flying overseas and playing in the OHL with Owen Sound, according to Nother.
But then the professional ranks came calling.
The 19-year-old has started the year with Dynamo Moscow’s KHL team, the top men’s professional league in his home country of Russia.
“It’s sitting in a space where they think he can be a full-time player in the KHL,” Nother said. “He kind of kicked the door down, and maybe surpassed our expectations, and honestly, Dynamo’s expectations, and if that’s the case, good for him.”
So, that book is closed, for now.
It leaves Owen Sound in a bit of a bind, with one of three import slots in limbo and an overage slot currently being used on the injured Jacob Therrien.
Nother said he’s comfortable with his team entering the year with Leenders and Brown as the OAs, along with Bernat and Cernak as the imports.
There’s some flexibility as well. Teams can roster four overage players until early January, though only three can dress for a game.
Something to watch.
LANDON’S TIMELINE — It appears all but certain that the Owen Sound Attack will begin the 2026-27 season without 2025 second-round pick Landon Jackman.
The talented power forward missed Owen Sound’s training camp for what is being described as “personal reasons” and, according to a social media post, is playing for an under-18 team near his St. Louis home.
Nother said the Owen Sound Attack continue to support Jackman and any timeline for his return to Owen Sound will be “Landon’s timeline.”