Zayne Parekh scored twice to lead the Saginaw Spirit past the London Knights by a score of 5-1 on Oct. 18 at Canada Life Place.
The game marked the first meeting between the teams since the 2024 Memorial Cup final.
The rematch featured penalties and power plays that factored into the final score as Saginaw ended up scoring three times on five power play opportunities.
London scored their goal on the man advantage as well.
The teams won’t have to wait long to see each other again as they meet on Saturday, Oct. 26 in Saginaw, Mich.
Spirit forward Lincoln Moore scored the first goal of the game on a power play at 12:40 of the first period. He was knocked down in front of the London net but managed to get his stick on a rebound while lying on the ice and tucked it underneath Knights goalie Alexei Medvedev for the only goal of the first 20 minutes.
London tied the game on a 4-on-3 man advantage early in the second period as Sam Dickinson scored his fifth goal of the year.
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Every one of his goals this season have come with the extra man.
At the 8:35 mark of the middle period Parekh kept a puck in a the left point and carried it along the blue line to the middle of the ice where the Calgary Flames prospect fired a wrist shot through traffic and into the Knight net for a 2-1 Saginaw lead.
Calem Mangone scored on a goal line plunge early in the third period after some excellent work by Spirit forward Kristian Epperson to move the puck around the London zone and put Saginaw up 3-1.
Epperson then made it 4-1 on a nice inside move coming across the Knights blue line as he got to the net and slipped the puck between the legs of Medvedev who made 32 saves on the night for London.
Parekh’s second of game came on a hard slap shot from the top of the right circle on a power play and that completed the scoring.
Saginaw outshot the Knights 37-18.
Andrew Oke made 17 saves in the Spirit net.
Sergei Kostitsyn still going strong
Sergei Kostitsyn played his final game for the London Knights alongside (OHL rookies) Patrick Kane and Sam Gagner in 2006-07.
He made the jump to the National Hockey League the very next year with the Montreal Canadiens where he appeared in 52 games in the regular season and 13 more in the playoffs. After Montreal, Kostitsyn moved on to Nashville where he played until the end of 2013 before heading to the Kontinental Hockey League.
Kostitsyn is now into his 17th year of professional hockey and his third consecutive year in his home country of Belarus with Metallurg Zhlobin.
Through 14 games this season he has three goals and 11 points.
Up next
The Knights will face the Erie Otters for the second time in 2024-25.
The teams met in London’s third game of the season and the Otters walked away with a 5-3 victory against a London lineup that was still missing a few of the familiar faces that have since returned.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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