Sam O’Reilly scored a goal and added two assists as the London Knights edged Kingston 3-2 as Dale Hunter earned his 1000th career victory in the Ontario Hockey League on March 7 at Canada Life Place.
Hunter joined Ottawa 67’s head coach Brian Kilrea as the only coaches in OHL history to reach that mark.
As he had for his 500th through 900th career wins Hunter hit the milestone in the fewest number of games.
Goals that came 23 seconds apart in the first period left the Knights and Frontenacs tied 1-1 through 20 minutes.
Sam O’Reilly came flying down the right wing side of the ice, cut to the Kingston net and scored his 23rd goal of the year at 8:45 and then just 23 seconds later Ethan Hay hammered home his 13th and the clubs went to their dressing rooms even on the scoreboard.
London’s two leading goal scorers each picked up a second period goal as Easton Cowan and Landon Sim hit 27 goals on the year.
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A turnover in the Frontenacs zone wound up on the stick of Cowan and he rifled in his sixth goal in three games to put the Knights ahead 2-1.
Later in the period Landon Sim corralled a bouncing puck in front of the Kingston net and backhanded it by Charlie Schenkel to increase the Knights lead to a pair through 40 minutes.
Sim had put a puck into the Frontenac net with 10.5 seconds remaining in the first period but the play was ruled offside.
Sim ended up with a Gordie Howe hat trick on a goal, an assist and a fight with Londoner Will Bishop.
The score stayed that way until the 16:28 mark of the third period when Kingston pulled their goaltender and Tuomas Uronen batted a bouncing puck past Austin Elliott to get the Frontenacs to within a goal.
That is as close the score would get as London held on.
The Knights outshot Kingston 24-23.
London was 0-for-2 on the power play.
The Frontenacs were 0-for-1.
Jacob Julien signs with Winnipeg
In September of 2022 Londoner Jacob Julien was in a lecture hall at Western University preparing for a future in the world of engineering. Months later he was a London Knight and then months after that he became a draft pick of the Winnipeg Jets and on March 6 Julien officially became a member of the Jets organization. Julien signed a three-year entry-level contract with Winnipeg and will join their organization once he concludes his overage season with the Knights.
Up next
London will be in Sarnia to face the Sting for the final time in the regular season on Sunday, March 9 at 2 p.m.
After recording just two wins since the start of February the Sting currently find themselves in a fight with the Owen Sound Attack and the Soo Greyhounds for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference.
Coverage will start at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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