Life is full of lessons.
The North Bay Battalion built a 3-1 lead against the London Knights on Friday night at Budweiser Gardens and held on for a 4-1 victory.
One night earlier, North Bay had a 3-1 lead slip away against the Windsor Spitfires but they learned from that and managed to keep the Knights off the scoreboard for the final two periods to preserve the win.
After the Battalion outshot London 14-6 in the first 20 minutes, the Knights had the upper hand in shots by a margin of 26-7 the rest of the way.
The Knights struck first in the game as defenceman Sam Dickinson started the scoring with his second goal and sixth point of the season when he came flying across the North Bay blue line, cut across the high slot, and snapped a shot low to the glove side of Dom DiVincentiis and into the Battalion net.
North Bay tied the game less than a minute later when Ilderton’s Owen Van Steensel found Anthony Romani in front of the net for a bang-bang play at the 4:28 mark of the opening period.
A Ty Nelson one-timer on a power play put the Battalion ahead 2-1 at the 9:15 mark and then Justin Ertel batted an Iggy Pazil rebound out of the air to give North Bay a two-goal lead going into the second period.
The Battalion held off London in the middle 20 minutes to keep the 3-1 score going into the third.
The Knights outshot North Bay 14-4 in the second period and had a 5-on-3 man advantage for one minute and 32 seconds but could not find the back of the net.
The Battalion continued to fend off any and all London chances as the Knights fired 12 more shots at DiVincentiis but could not beat him.
London pulled goaltender Michael Simpson with 3:17 to go but Jacob Therrien intercepted a pass at the North Bay blue line and pushed up ice with Oliver Bonk chasing side by side. Bonk ended up taking Therrien down to the ice and the officials ruled a goal on the play because of the fact that Therrien was fouled while attempting to score on an empty net.
The Knights power play was held silent for the first time in 2023-24 as it went 0-for-4.
The Battalion were 1-for-5.
London outshot North Bay 32-21.
Van Bommel officially becomes a Knight
Rene Van Bommel of Strathroy, Ont., was selected by the London Knights in the 11th round of the 2022 OHL Priority Selection. Van Bommel had no guarantee coming into training camp that he would be on the roster this season but he made it impossible for him to be anywhere else.
Work ethic, determination and the ability to do all of those little things that help teams to win games saw Van Bommel sign an OHL Scholarship and Development Agreement before the game against the Battalion on Friday night.
Former Knights all over U Sports landscape
As the University hockey season begins, there are 16 former London players and draft picks playing at Ontario, Atlantic and Western Canada schools.
Last year’s co-captain Sean McGurn begins his U Sports career with the University of New Brunswick. McGurn joins three other former Knights in Cody Morgan, Camaryn Baber and Jason Willms. They will go head to head all year with Josh Nelson and Joseph Raaymakers and St. F.X. all year along with Nathan Dunkley and Ben Roger who are with the Saint Mary’s Huskies.
In Ontario, Billy Moskal (U of T), Cole Tymkin (Brock), Dalton Duhart (Queen’s), Matt Onuska (Waterloo), Emmet Pierce (Waterloo), and Liam Whittaker (Lakehead) are underway in the OUA season.
Former Knights defenceman Shane Collins and goaltender Jordan Kooy are both back with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies for 2023-24.
Up next
The Knights will host the Guelph Storm on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Budweiser Gardens.
Like London, Guelph is waiting for news from the NHL. While Knights fans are wondering about Easton Cowan with the Maple Leafs, Storm fans want to know about Matthew Poitras in Boston. Poitras has three goals in the pre-season and could help the Bruins to fill the off-season losses
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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