Two goals by Mitchell Stephens and 37 saves from Tyler Parsons helped the London Knights blank the Generals 4-0 in Oshawa on Sunday night.
The win moved the Knights back into a tie for first overall with the Erie Otters after the team fought through injuries and the flu to nab two victories in three games. Both clubs have 21 games remaining.
London almost picked up at least 5 points. The winning goal in their game against the Otters on Friday night deflected off the stick of Dylan Strome with 40.4 seconds remaining.
Adding in Saturday’s 7-6 comeback in Owen Sound, Stephens scored five times and netted a shootout winner. After playing all his OHL career with the Saginaw Spirit, he is beginning to feel very comfortable in London.
“The confidence and the chemistry that I’ve had with J.J. (Piccinich) and (Dante Salituro) has been great… and the team is playing well and winning hockey games and that’s the biggest thing.”
Piccinich made a play on Stephens’ second goal that characterized leading by example. At the end of a long shift, the New Jersey native willed his legs to give anything they had left and jumped up to create a 2-on-1. Stephens fed Piccinich and the Knights’ captain feathered a return pass back, allowing Stephens to slice the puck over Kyle Keyser and into the Oshawa net.
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Piccinich and Stephens combined on the fourth London goal as Stephens left the penalty box and took a pass from Piccinich that put him 1-on-1 at the Generals’ blue line. Stephens moved to his right and ripped a wrister over the glove of Keyser for his seventh point of the weekend.
Janne Kuokkanen’s 19th goal of the season opened the scoring in the first period and it held for almost two periods. Alex Turko knocked a puck loose out of a faceoff scrum and Kuokkanen wristed it in to make it 1-0 London. It was Turko’s first OHL point after starting the year with the St. Thomas Stars.
Evan Bouchard scored the other London goal on a blast from the top of the right circle in the third period.
The shutout by Parsons was his third of the year. He used arms, legs, sticks and even his face to make saves, taking a blast square off his mask in period three. The mask came away O.K. and Parsons was still smiling about it after the game.
“It’s one of those things where sometimes that hurts and sometimes it doesn’t. This time was all right and it was definitely a good night.”
Parsons faced a lot of hard shots, especially from the Generals’ defence core who would give anybody a run when it comes to getting power behind the puck. The Chesterfield, Michigan native now has seven career shutouts and used this one to raise his save percentage to .925.
Mitch Vande Sompel had to go through the strange experience of facing teammates he won a Memorial Cup with less than two years ago.
“It was weird. Those are the guys I’ve been passing to for three years and now there they are forechecking me. Still, it was good to get the win.”
After playing without eight regulars on Saturday afternoon in Owen Sound, London got some reinforcements in Oshawa. Max Jones, Sam Miletic and Cliff Pu returned to the lineup and played much of the game on the same line.
The Knights get two days to rest up and then they host the Kitchener Rangers at Budweiser Gardens on Wednesday at 7:00. Broadcast time on AM 980 will be 6:30.
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