The London Knights have a little something in common with the Sarnia Sting other than the 402.
Both teams have won a game in regulation in Erie this season.
They are the only two Ontario Hockey League teams to accomplish the feat.
The London Knights got two goals from Sam Miletic and 41 saves from Tyler Parsons on Tuesday night in a 3-2 victory at The Erie Insurance Arena as snow piled up outside.
“I think the players set a new season high for blocked shots tonight,” said London assistant coach, Rick Steadman. “There were guys sliding everywhere and when pucks don’t get to your goalie, it makes a big difference.”
Parsons earned his 21st win of the season and even with a heavy workload and first star honours, he echoed Steadman.
“We did a very good job defensively for tonight. Even though there were a lot of shots on the board, there could have been twenty more, so give credit to the forwards and the defencemen for sacrificing like they did.”
Parsons says he is really starting to get back into a groove in goal. “I’m getting back into the swing of things and it was good to get some confidence with a win like this.”
The World Junior gold medallist missed time in 2017 with an injury and the flu. He leads the OHL in save percentage and the two goals against in Erie will drop his goals-against average to number three overall.
The Knights held the league scoring leader off the board until the final minute on Friday in London, but Alex DeBrincat got an early start on home ice. His pass was blocked by a skate but bounced right back to him and he wristed in the game’s first goal and his 63rd of the season.
London was denied on two power play opportunities and the game sat 1-0 for Erie through twenty minutes.
The Knights came out hard in the second period and pushed down deep into the Erie zone. Just shy of the three-minute mark, the puck came back to the blue line and was kept in by Evan Bouchard and he took a shot that was tipped past Troy Timpano to tie the game. The play was reviewed for almost ten minutes before it was called a good goal.
Just 55 seconds after that, Knights’ captain J.J. Piccinich took a shot that Miletic tried to deflect, only the puck didn’t go quite where he expected.
“I was trying to tip it, but it just went straight down,” said Miletic.
He calmly corralled the puck at the side of the net, pivoted and snapped a shot high to give the Knights a 2-1 lead.
The score stayed that way until three minutes into the third period when a shot by Erie’s Kyle Maksimovich went high but wound up in behind the London net. Warren Foegele centred to Anthony Cirelli and he tied the game 2-2.
The Knights responded quickly. Robert Thomas skated deep into the left corner of the Erie zone and found Miletic setting up in the slot for his 11th multi-goal game of the year and his 36th goal overall.
London held on from there and got the points they needed to secure home ice advantage through at least the first round of the playoffs. Things are still tight atop the West. Owen Sound beat Guelph 6-4 to stay one point in front of the Knights for the third seed. Erie is four points ahead of London and has two games remaining. The Attack have three left.
The Knights will play their final home game of the regular season on Friday night as they host the Flint Firebirds at Budweiser Gardens. Broadcast time on AM980 is 6:30 p.m. After that, the Knights end the schedule with a quick road trip to Flint and Sault Ste. Marie. Both games can be heard on AM980 with the pre-game show beginning 30 minutes before the drop of the puck.
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