Four points from Sam Dickinson, three points from Ruslan Gazizov and more goals from Max McCue led the London Knights to a 5-1 win over the Sarnia Sting at Budweiser Gardens on Dec. 29.
The victory gave London a sweep of a two-game, home-and-home set between the clubs and a six points-to-two lead in the annual 402 Rivalry series.
Who else but McCue got the scoring started.
McCue extended his goal streak to nine games when he fired a puck through Karsen Chartier at 5:34 of the first period.
The goal moved him up another notch on London’s list of longest consecutive goal-scoring streaks dating back to the 1997-98 season.
McCue is now tied with Jared Knight and trailing only Patrick Kane who scored in 13 straight games in the 2006-07 season for longest streak in that span. Kane scored 25 goals in that stretch.
For good measure, McCue added his second goal of the game at 14:42 of the first period on a wicked shot that popped the water bottle off the top of the Sting net for his 17th goal of the year.
London defenceman Sam Dickinson did all of the scoring in the second period as he struck twice in one minute and 27 seconds. Both goals came on the power play and both were assisted by Denver Barkey, who passed the 50-point plateau.
The Knights have now scored at least one power play goal in 14 consecutive games.
Tyson Doucette picked up Sarnia’s lone goal at 12:12 of the final period only to have Dickinson send Gazizov and Jacob Julien in on a two-man breakaway 18 seconds later. Julien fed Gazizov in tight for his 14th goal of the year to extend his point streak to seven games after recording a goal and two assists in the game.
The Knights five-game winning streak is their longest so far in 2023-24.
London outshot the Sting 40-26.
The Knights were without three regular defencemen in the game. Oliver Bonk is with forwards Easton Cowan and Kasper Halttunen at the World Junior Hockey Championship, Alec Leonard was serving the first of a two-game suspension for a slew-footing major penalty that he received on Dec. 28 and Ethan MacKinnon remains out with an upper-body injury.
World Junior tournament already interesting
It is proving difficult to score on Sweden at the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship. In fact, so far it has been impossible, Sweden blanked Canada 2-0 on Dec. 29 to clinch top spot in Group A.
Sweden has not allowed a single goal through their first three games of the tournament and their shutout of Canada was the first time that has happened in 26 years.
That means Easton Cowan, Oliver Bonk and the rest of their Team Canada teammates will need a victory over Germany on New Year’s Eve to secure second place. The game will be played at 1:30 p.m., on Dec. 31.
Kasper Halttunen and Finland find themselves in a better spot than they had been after a 4-0 win over Latvia on Dec. 29.
Finland had fallen to 0-2 off the start of the tournament. Beating Latvia all but assures them a spot in the quarterfinals. Halttunen has 20 goals for London this season and has two goals and an assist in three games so far at the World Juniors. Finland will play Sweden in their final game of the group stage on New Year’s Eve.
Knights import draft pick Daniil Ustinkov is playing for Switzerland. He is a 17-year old defenceman and is playing in the Swiss National League with ZSC Lions. Switzerland plays a big game against Norway on Dec. 30 which could decide which of the two teams will head to the relegation round.
Up next
The Knights close out 2023 on New Year’s Eve with a home game against the Flint Firebirds at 4 p.m., at Budweiser Gardens.
The teams have played each other once this year in a game the Firebirds won 7-4 on Nov. 17th. Flint currently sits in 8th place in the Western Conference.
Coverage will start at 3:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.