Sequels always struggle to be better than the original.
After the London Knights erased a three-goal lead with under 12 minutes remaining in Oshawa on Feb. 11 to win in overtime, they then came close to doing it again in more dramatic fashion 17 days later.
London got to within one goal of erasing two separate three-goal leads by the Generals but could not find a way to tie the game and ended up falling 6-4.
Denver Barkey had two goals and two assists to lead the way offensively for the Knights.
Easton Cowan and Sam Dickinson both kept their personal point streaks alive. Cowan’s is now 27 games long and Dickinson’s is at 11.
The loss by the Knights gives the Saginaw Spirit a game in hand on London.
The Knights lead the Spirit by four points for first overall in the Ontario Hockey League standings.
Connor Lockhart kept a puck alive at the London blue line and fed it in front to Luke Torrance, who opened the scoring for Oshawa just 3:28 into the game.
The Generals went ahead 2-0 on a similar goal just over 10 minutes later as the puck was kept alive by Calum Ritchie at the right point of the Knights zone and that allowed Luca D’Amato to centre a pass that went off the stick of Isaiah George and into the London net.
The Knights hit two goal posts in the opening 20 minutes but could not find the back of the Oshawa net.
Generals goalie Jacob Oster denied Ruslan Gazizov and Barkey on a two-on-oh breakaway early in the second period and then Oshawa scored again.
On a Generals power play a shot from the left point deflected to the side of the London net and Torrance was able to grab it and score his second goal of the game to give Oshawa a familiar 3-0 lead.
Oliver Bonk cut into that lead before the end of the second period as he jumped up into the play during a 4-on-4 situation, took a feed from Barkey and backhanded a puck over Oster.
Kasper Halttunen rang a puck off the crossbar on a power play just over a minute later and the Knights went to the third period trailing by two.
Barkey brought London to within a goal by sending his 30th of the season off the stick of a Generals defender. Easton Cowan picked up an assist to continue his point streak.
Just two and a half minutes later, Connor Punnett took a shot that hit the body of Matt Buckley and wound up in the Knight net to restore Oshawa’s two-goal lead.
At the 8:31 mark of the third period, Calum Ritchie banged in a rebound to build the second three-goal advantage for the Generals.
London went to two consecutive power plays and elected to pull goaltender Michael Simpson for each of them. The first one came with 9:42 remaining in regulation time.
Oshawa managed to kill both penalties but Halttunen found the back of the net for the Knights with 3:42 remaining and then Barkey scored his 31st goal with 3:09 left and it was suddenly 5-4.
A save after that by Oster saw the puck bounce to Connor Punnett and he wristed a shot from the hash marks of his own end, all the way down the ice, in the air and into the London net to finish the scoring.
London outshot the Generals 41-30.
Simpson named OHL Goaltender of the Week
For the third time this season, Michael Simpson of the Knights has been named Ontario Hockey League Goaltender of the Week.
Simpson won two goals and posted his third shutout of the season as London increased their lead over the Saginaw Spirit to four points from two for top spot in the OHL standings.
Simpson currently leads the league in wins and goals against average and is second in save percentage to only Carter George of the Owen Sound Attack.
Up next
The Knights will head back on the road for three straight games beginning with a stop at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium on March 1.
London has played the Kitchener Rangers four times this season and has gone 3-1.
Kitchener won the first game between the teams by a score of 4-2 but in a span of just 12 days the Knights rattled off three consecutive victories by a combined score 18-5.
London trailed the Rangers by as much as 11 points for first place in the OHL’s Midwest Division standings and now the Knights own a 13-point lead for top spot in the division.
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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