The London Knights headed into the Ontario Hockey League’s holiday break with a 4-3 comeback victory in overtime against the Sudbury Wolves.
The game was played on the anniversary of the passing of Abakar Kazbekov and it was Kazbekov’s close friend Ruslan Gazizov who played hero for the Knights.
London was trailing Sudbury 3-2 late in the third period when a Wolves penalty gave the Knights a power play. Goaltender Michael Simpson went to the bench for an extra attacker and Jared Woolley slid a pass from the left side of the ice to the right side that Gazizov blasted home with just 1:35 left on the clock.
The teams went to overtime and took turns owning the puck and trying to break through for a decent chance to score.
Time ticked down under 30 seconds and Dale Hunter tapped Gazizov to jump onto the ice.
Max McCue left the puck for Isaiah George and he sent Gazizov away in full flight down the left side of the rink.
Gazizov made a wicked move on Quentin Musty and cut to the inside, got to the net and put the puck between the legs of Sudbury goalie Marcus Vandenberg with just over 10 seconds to go to give the Knights their third victory in a row and 20th win of the season.
Max McCue started the scoring just 28 seconds into the game and at the same time extended his goal streak to seven games. The overager, who is from Sudbury, now has eight goals in that span.
The teams combined for 10 minutes of power play time in the second period but neither team could score a goal on the man advantage. The only goal came after a penalty to Quentin Musty had ended. Musty came out of the penalty box and got behind the London defence and former Knight Nick Yearwood found him with a breakaway pass. Musty snapped a low shot into the Knight net and the teams sat tied 1-1 through 40 minutes.
Sudbury went ahead for the first time when Nolan Collins scored 2:04 into the third period but London responded just over a minute later when Blake Arrowsmith got a puck to Ryder Boulton and he put the puck off the pads of Vandenberg and William Nicholl slammed it in to make it 2-2.
The Wolves took the lead again on a power play goal by Evan Konyen at the 10:36 mark of the third setting the stage for the Knights comeback.
Gazizov’s goal on the man advantage to make it 3-3 gave London at least one power play goal in 12 consecutive games.
The Knights outshot Sudbury 33-31.
Knights head into break on a power play roll
London has gone 11 consecutive games with at least one power play goal. They have done it with Easton Cowan, Denver Barkey, Oliver Bonk and Kasper Halttunen leading the way and they have done it without those players in the lineup at all.
The Knights have rocketed to the top spot in power play percentage in the OHL. In those 11 games between Nov. 18 and Dec. 15 London went 21-for-41 for a success rate of 51.2 per cent. In four games without Halttunen, Cowan and Bonk the Knights have been 5-for-9 for 55.5 per cent.
Up next
London will be off for their holiday break until Thursday, Dec. 28 when they will visit the Sarnia Sting for the first of a home-and-home series.
The Knights are 1-1 against the Sting this year. They defeated Sarnia 4-1 at Budweiser Gardens on Dec. 5 in their annual Teddy Bear Toss game.
The teams will meet in London on Friday, Dec. 29 at 7 p.m.
Coverage of both games will get going at 6:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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