Ruslan Gazizov scored twice and added an assist as the London Knights celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a 7-4 win over the Spitfires in Windsor.
After the Erie Otters edged the Saginaw Spirit in a game one night earlier, the Knights knew they needed to pick up at least five points over their final three games to secure first overall, and they got to work on two of those points against the Spitfires.
London scored five times in the opening 20 minutes and led the game 5-2.
Those five goals featured a milestone and a new Knights record.
After Max McCue and Jackson Edward scored goals in the first ten minutes of the game Kaleb Lawrence picked up his 20th of the season to put London ahead 3-1 at that point.
Jacob Julien’s 29th of the year gave the Knights a 4-1 lead and then on a London power play Easton Cowan fed Gazizov for his fifth goal in two games.
That assist gave Cowan points in 34 consecutive games, which eclipsed a record by Dave Gilmore that has stood since the 1993-94 season. It also tied Cowan with former Sarnia Sting forward Trevor Letowski for the second-longest point streak of the past 30 years. Only current Windsor general manager Bill Bowler has a longer streak in that span. Bowler went 41 straight games with at least one point in 1994-95.
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Anthony Cristoforo and Colton Smith had the first-period goals for the Spitfires.
Denver Barkey crept closer to a 100-point season with his 33rd goal and 97th point early in the second period as he was set up by Cowan at the 1:39 mark.
Ryan Abraham got that goal back for Windsor at 12:21 of the second period as Abraham banged in a pass at the side of the London net.
Valentin Zhugin tightened the gap to a pair as he scored his 20th at 8:25 of the third period.
Gazizov’s scored his second goal short-handed into an empty net to finish the scoring with 28 seconds remaining in the game. That goal tied the Knights with the Niagara Falls Thunder for most short-handed goals by a team in a single season with 29.
London outshot the Spitfires 43-24.
UNB completes perfect season with U Sports championship
Four former London Knights players are at the top of the U Sports mountain in men’s hockey. Sean McGurn, Camryn Baber, Jason Willms and Cody Morgan lifted the University Cup on Sunday evening at what used to be Maple Leaf Gardens as they completed a completely undefeated season.
The University of New Brunswick downed the Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres 4-0 in the final. Morgan scored one of the four UNB goals. The Reds did not give up a single goal against in three tournament games.
UNB went 30-0 in the regular season and then swept their way through the Atlantic University playoffs before blanking Brock 4-0 and stomping host TMU 7-0 to advance to the final.
The Western Mustangs posted an undefeated regular season in 2001-02 with a record of 22-0-2. They were edged 5-4 by UQTR in the Queen’s Cup championship but got the last laugh with a 4-3 victory over UQTR in triple-overtime to win the national title. Knights equipment manager Chris Maton was part of that championship team.
Up next
London and Windsor will meet again on Friday, March 22 at Budweiser Gardens at 7 p.m.
A win in that game would move the Knights to within one point of clinching first overall in the Ontario Hockey League standings.
London will close out the regular season on March 24 at home against the Guelph Storm in the 2 p.m., game.
Coverage of Friday’s game will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980 CFPL.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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