Josh Bloom’s goal with 21.7 seconds remaining in the third period broke a 3-3 tie and gave the Saginaw Spirit a 4-3 victory and their first Memorial Cup championship.
Jorian Donovan managed to keep a puck in at the blue line and got it to the net where it bounced through all kinds of bodies to the goal line and Bloom got one whack and knocked the puck in.
The goal came after the Knights had battled back from a 3-0 deficit and battled through an excellent defensive effort by Saginaw that limited London to one shot in the first period and five in the second period.
The Spirit got a pair of goals from Montreal Canadiens prospect Owen Beck to begin the game and took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The second of those goals came on a power play with less that one minute remaining on the clock after London forward Landon Sim was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for elbowing after a hit on Saginaw defenceman Zayne Parekh.
The Knights killed off the remaining 3:58 in the major penalty to Sim to begin the second period but the Spirit added to their lead when Joey Willis intercepted a puck at the London blue line and won a race to the net where he deked and flipped a backhand into the top corner to give Saginaw a three-goal advantage.
Less than two minutes later Kasper Halttunen gave the Knights their first goal as he received a pass from Easton Cowan as Cowan took a big hit on the left-wing side of centre ice. Halttunen got across the blue line and ripped a wrist shot past Andrew Oke as the San Jose Sharks prospect extended his goal scoring streak to seven straight games and picked up his fourth goal of the Memorial Cup tournament.
The Knights continued to push in the third period and closed the gap to a single goal on a rush by Sam Dickinson which pulled the crowd out of their seats. He began from behind his own goal and blazed down the ice. Dickinson cut to the left and took the puck in behind the Spirit net where he fed a pass to the right side to Easton Cowan. Cowan wristed a shot through traffic in front and the score was 3-2 with 12:12 remaining.
Dickinson wasn’t done there. With 9:44 to go left he took a pass from Max McCue and scored his second goal of the tournament to tie the game.
The teams battled from there and with overtime looming the puck got to the goal line and Bloom played hero for the Spirit.
Dickinson ended the game with a goal and an assist.
Cowan had a goal and two assists and Oliver Bonk had a pair of assists.
Saginaw outshot London 31-13.
Beck was named tournament MVP.
Dickinson, O’Reilly and Woolley headed to NHL combine
Three members of the London Knights along with Londoner Jett Luchanko and Marek Vanacker of Delhi, Ont., will take part in the NHL Combine in Buffalo ahead of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. Sam Dickinson, Sam O’Reilly and Jared Woolley will be at the event following the Memorial Cup tournament. The combine brings together 100 of the top draft eligible prospects and runs from now until June 8.
O’Reilly leads all rookies
Sam O’Reilly has been climbing up the draft projections for the 2024 NHL Entry Draft and has only given scouts reason to like him even more at the 2024 Memorial Cup tournament. O’Reilly was the only rookie to record a point and he actually put up four of them on a goal and 3 assists while becoming a key faceoff guy for the London Knights as well. The Toronto native picked up the assist in Easton Cowan’s game winner to send the Knights straight through to the Memorial Cup final and will now look ahead to Las Vegas and the NHL Draft that will take place at Sphere June 28-29.