Sam O’Reilly and Ben Wilmott scored shootout goals and Seb Gatto kept the puck out of the London net at the other end of the ice as the Knights edged the Soo Greyhounds 3-2 on Sunday.
Gatto made 27 saves in the first 65 minutes of the game and was named the first star.
The win moved the London Knights into first place in the OHL’s Midwest Division ahead of the Owen Sound Attack and Kitchener Rangers.
The only goal of the opening period was scored by Greyhounds rookie forward Noah Laus, who took a drop pass and wired a wrist shot into the London net at 18:53 and Sault Ste. Marie led 1-0..
Mike Zakharov’s first OHL goal tied the game at the 4:51 mark of the second period after he was set up on a nifty drop pass by Max Crete.
The Greyhounds retook the lead on a power-play goal from veteran forward Marco Mignosa at the 7:12 mark.
That goal ended a run of 22 successful penalty kills by the Knights that began on Nov. 2 against Kingston and gave Sault Ste. Marie a 2-1 lead.
Late in the second period, London went back to a man advantage of their own and some gorgeous puck movement eventually got the puck to Braidy Wassilyn off to the left of the Greyhound net. He had an empty side to put home his eighth goal of the year to send the teams to the third period deadlocked at 2-2.
The third period solved nothing and Gatto made four stops in overtime to push the game to a shootout.
Both O’Reilly and Wilmott scored goals. After a Gatto save, Sault forward Brady Martin rang a final shot off the goal post and London celebrated.
The Knights outshot the Greyhounds 33-29.
London was 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The Knights were without several players due to injury and also without head coach Dale Hunter, who missed the game due to illness.
Henry Brzustewicz, Caleb Mitchell, Evan Van Gorp, Cohen Bidgood and Will Nicholl were all sidelined.
Hunter Skinner makes NHL debut
Hunter Skinner spent the 2019-20 season with the Knights. He could defend. He could add offence and he played the game with a whole lot of passion and intensity. Skinner has used all of those qualities since leaving London and after a little more than five years of hard work in the minors, he got the call to make his National Hockey League debut on Friday with the St. Louis Blues. Skinner was a plus-1 in a wild game against the Flyers that Philadelphia won 6-5 in a shootout.
Up next
The Knights go north for their next three games as they visit the North Bay Battalion on Thursday, the Sudbury Wolves on Friday and the Soo Greyhounds on Saturday.
The stretch will mark the first time this season that London has played three games in three nights.
All games are 7 p.m. starts.
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m. for all games on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.