Jack Beck of Sault Ste. Marie scored the only goal to end the shootout and gave the hometown Greyhounds a 3-2 victory over the London Knights at GFL Memorial Gardens on Oct. 4.
The game only got to a shootout after the puck refused to go into either net during a wild and crazy overtime.
The teams raced back and forth on odd-man rushes and even breakaways but the puck kept rolling off sticks or going high or wide. Anything and everything other than inside the six-fott-by-four-foot cages.
In fact only one shot was recorded in overtime. It went to the Knights.
Owen Willmore made his first start of the season for London and stopped 25 of 27 shots in the game.
Knights forward Max McCue made some early noise as he stepped into Greyhounds defenceman Caeden Carlisle with two thundering checks early in the game and then showed off his hands as he took a pass from Juan Copeland out of the right corner of the Sault Ste. Marie zone after Ruslan Gazizov had raced in off a faceoff and poked a puck free.
McCue then lifted a shot over the glove of Greyhounds goalie Charlie Schenkel and London led 1-0 at 13:30 of the opening period.
Soo defenceman and Red Wings prospect Andrew Gibson tied the game at 8:36 of the second with a blast from the right point through a screen, but the Knights put their power play to use to take the lead again just over five minutes later.
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Sam O’Reilly won a faceoff to the right of the Greyhound net and went to the edge of the crease. Moments later, London defenceman Sam Dickinson unleashed a low slap shot that O’Reilly deflected past Schenkel for his second goal of the season to make it 2-1 Knights.
Dickinson now has a team-leading five points on the season.
The goal was London’s fifth on the man advantage so far this year in just 10 opportunities.
Ironically it was scored with Kasper Halttunen (who has three of those five power play goals) in the penalty box. He and Sault Ste. Marie forward Alex Kostov were serving coincidental minors at the time.
Christopher Brown found Travis Hayes on the left side of the Knights zone with 9:37 remaining in the third period and the 16-year old rookie connected for his fourth goal in three games.
London was 1-for-1 on the power play. The Greyhounds were o-for-2.
Sault Ste. Marie outshot London 27-22.
Cowan remains with Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs first round pick Easton Cowan impressed at the team’s rookie camp and then recorded a goal and an assist in his first two pre-season games. Toronto reduced their roster to 19 forwards on Oct. 2 and Cowan was one of them.
Maple Leafs Head coach Sheldon Keefe has stated that the Mt. Brydges, Ont., native will not be part of a team bonding trip to Gravenhurst, Ont., but has not given a timetable on when the Maple Leafs will make a decision on where Cowan will play this year.
Halttunen matches McMichael
London forward Kasper Halttunen is off to an incredibly fast start to his OHL career with three goals in his first two games. His is the best goal-scoring beginning by a Knights player since Connor McMichael in 2019-20.
McMichael had two goals in his first two games, four in his first three and after a hat trick against his former Hamilton Bulldogs team he pushed that to seven goals in four games. McMichael ended up with 47 goals that year but the Knights had three games remaining when everything shut down due to COVID-19.
Halttunen came to London known for his ability to put the puck in the net and is proving that was bang on early on in 2023-24.
Up next
The Knights will spend Thanksgiving weekend playing back-to-back home games at Budweiser Gardens against the North Bay Battalion and the Guelph Storm.
London will host North Bay on Friday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m.
The Battalion are currently 1-1-1 after dropping a regulation and shootout losses to the Barrie Colts to start the season. North Bay rebounded to edged the Sudbury Wolves 2-1 on Oct. 1. North Bay will face the Spitfires in Windsor on Oct. 5 before arriving in London, Ont.
The Guelph Storm are 2-0 after consecutive 4-2 victories at home to Windsor and in Owen Sound, Ont.
Londoner Jett Luchanko is off to a fast start for the Storm with a goal and an assist in his first two games. He has been playing on Guelph’s top line.
Coverage of this weekend’s Knights games will begin at 6:30 p.m., with the pregame show on Oct. 6 and 7.
Games can be heard on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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