For the fourth game in a row against each other the London Knights and Ottawa 67’s went beyond regulation time.
It took a Denver Barkey goal and some additional Owen Willmore saves to push London past Ottawa 4-3 in a shootout Saturday.
The Knights have not lost to Ottawa since 2018 but every game seems to score high for its entertainment value.
The game at TD Place in the national capital was also a memorable day for another reason. Easton Cowan became the only London player to earn at least one point in 26 games dating back to 1997-98 when he scored for the fourth straight game in the second period.
Sam O’Reilly of the Knights scored the first goal of the game, his 17th of the season, as he showed off his multitude of skills. O’Reilly dislodged a puck by throwing his body into a pair of players at the Ottawa blue line, corralled it, then swooped past everyone and cut in alone to the 67’s net where he deked to the right and lifted a shot over Collin MacKenzie. It was the only goal of the opening 20 minutes.
A Sam Dickinson one-timer on a power play at 9:17 of the second period made it 2-0 London as Dickinson pushed his personal point streak to double digits with his 17th of the year.
Blenheim, Ont., native Brady Stonehouse halved the Knights’ lead as he stole a puck down low and cut across the crease for his own 17th on the season. The goal ended a London shutout streak that lasted 135:46 through games against Windsor, Kingston and the 67’s and featured work by both Owen Willmore and Michael Simpson of the Knights.
Cowan’s streak-extending goal restored London’s two-goal advantage as Dickinson got a puck ahead to Gazizov as a Knights penalty expired and he put a picture-perfect pass onto the stick of Cowan going to the left side of the Ottawa net and the Maple Leafs prospect made no mistake on his 29th goal.
The 67’s tied the game with two goals in a span of 44 seconds in the third period. First Caden Kelly scored following a London icing and then Cooper Foster rushed in across the Knights’s blue line, got a step to the net and knotted things up. The tie held through the rest of regulation time and five minutes of overtime as well.
Ottawa outshot the Knights 34-30.
The short-handed climb
The Knights now have 26 short-handed goals in 2023-24. That ranks as the most by any team since the Barrie Colts netted 28 in 2015-16.
It is also the most by any Knights team during the internet era (dating back to 1997-98).
London forward Denver Barkey leads all individual players with seven short-handed goals this season.
Here is where London sits in the race to catch the Colts:
15-16 – 28 – Barrie
09-10 – 27 – Barrie
02-03 – 26 – Ottawa
23-24 – 26 – London
01-02 – 25 – Erie
Up next
The Knights return home for their only game at Budweiser Gardens between now and March 8, hosting the Oshawa Generals at 7 p.m., on Feb. 28.
The Knights pulled off an improbable comeback against the Generals in Oshawa on Feb.11.
Down 3-0 with under 12 minutes remaining London got two goals from Kasper Halttunen and one from Jacob Julien to send the game to overtime where Easton Cowan won it on a breakaway with 21.7 seconds remaining.
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
Comments