Kaleb Lawrence scored twice as the London Knights beat the Erie Otters 5-1 at the Erie Insurance Arena on March 13.
The big six-foot-six-inch forward now has four goals in his past three games.
He helped London to pull away late following a major penalty for a check to the head that sent Wesley Royston to the penalty box and Knights forward Denver Barkey to the dressing room with 6:32 remaining in the game.
Barkey skated off on his own but did not return.
Easton Cowan missed the entire game for London. He is listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury but his 32-game point streak does remain intact.
Kasper Halltunen blasted a puck past Erie goalie Ethan Fraser from the left side on the ensuing five-minute power play to give London some breathing room in what had become a tight 2-1 game.
On that same man advantage, St. Louis Blues prospect Landon Sim made it 4-1 and then Lawrence collected his second of the night as he finished on a beautiful feed from Ruslan Gazizov on a two-on-one with one minute and 28 seconds to go. Gazizov has a pair of assists on the night.
The Knights got off to a tremendous start in the game as they outshot the Otters 14-5 and cashed in twice during the first 20 minutes.
Barkey sent a puck into the slot that Jacob Julien one-timed into the Erie net 3:40 into the game to make it 1-0. The assist was Barkey’s 94th point of the season.
Later in the period on a London power play Lawrence deflected a Max McCue shot past Otters goalie Ethan Fraser for Lawrence’s third goal in his past three games and a 2-0 Knights advantage.
No goals were scored in the second period and London goaltender Owen Willmore needs some nods for that. Willmore stopped Anaheim Ducks prospect Carey Terrance after a turnover in the Knights end and not long after that, made a big save on an Erie two-on-one.
The Otters got their only goal of the game on a snipe of a shot by Dylan Edwards from the left faceoff dot at 9:21 of the third period.
London outshot Erie 36-25.
The magic of Mitch Marner
A lower-body injury is keeping former Knight Mitch Marner out of the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup.
Sportsnet Stats produced a graphic that shows just how key Marner has been to Toronto since 2018-19.
Up next
London returns to Budweiser Gardens on Friday, March 15.
The Knights will play three of the four games they have left on their regular season schedule on home ice, and that stretch begins with a matchup against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
So far, London has come within a shootout and a one-goal game with a controversial offside call from beating the Sault.
The last meeting was all Greyhounds as they downed London 8-2 on Feb. 16.
This will be the final time the teams play before the post-season begins.
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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