London Knights win their fourth in a row

Max Jones scored the shootout winner as the London Knights defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs 3-2 in Hamilton on Saturday afternoon.

Jones picked up the puck at centre, moved to the right side of the ice and then used a combination of head, shoulder and shot fakes, before deking and putting the puck high over Bulldogs’ veteran goalie Kaden Fulcher.

“I was just trying to be patient,” said Jones. “I hadn’t scored on a breakaway in practice in about two weeks, so I was doing my best to wait him out.”

The Orion, MI native made a clutch situation look routine in a year that is starting to settle into a nice groove for the Knights.

Jones knew that had he missed on his shootout chance, London and Hamilton would’ve headed towards a sudden death format of trading chances until one of them scored and the other one didn’t. He also wanted to do everything he could to keep some of the missed opportunities that came early in the year from creeping anywhere near what the Knights have been accomplishing in the past two weeks.

“We didn’t start the way we expected to this season. We’re turning it around now. If you put us in a game like that a couple of weeks ago, we may not have won. Now, we’re coming back in the third period and winning in a shootout. It starts with everyone working hard and keeping their heads held high.”

The hard work continues on Sunday as London travels to Guelph for their third game in a span of 48 hours.

How the goals were scored

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In the first period, Cliff Pu and Adrian Carbonara put together the equivalent of a Youtube instruction video for anyone looking to score on a 2-on-1. Pu caused a turnover just outside the Hamilton blue line and carried the puck into the Bulldogs’ zone, quickly feeding a pass across the ice to Adrian Carbonara. As Pu got rid of the puck, he went hard to the net and banged in the rebound off Carbonara’s shot to open the scoring.

The Bulldogs tied the game right off the hop in the second period. Jack Hanley slid a pass to the side of the London net and Marian Studenic guided it over the goal line to tie the game, just 19 seconds from the opening face-off.

Just over a minute later on a Hamilton power play, former Erie Otters’ defenceman T.J. Fergus wired a shot through traffic and in to put the Bulldogs in front 2-1.

In the second period, Jones threaded a pass to Sam Miletic in the slot and Miletic rocketed a wrist shot off the post. In the third period, Miletic found his way to an opening in the Hamilton end and took a feed from Robert Thomas that he ripped past Kaden Fulcher to tie the game at two.

Overtime saw great chances both ways and some good work by both goalies, but failed to yield a winner.

Jones scored the only goal of the shootout.

In the lead

When Fergus scored for the Bulldogs at 1:43 of the second period, it marked the first time that the Knights had not been tied or leading a game with Joseph Raaymakers in their net. The run lasted 201 minutes and 43 seconds.

Going streaking

Robert Thomas had piled up 11 points in four games and was in danger of seeing that streak end as the third period began. His pass to Sam Miletic that set up the game tying goal stretched it to 12 points in five games. Thomas leads the London Knights in scoring with nine goals and eight assists.

Wayne Gretzky is still right

Gretzky called 3-on-3 hockey “the best thing hockey has done in 20 years.” The Knights and Bulldogs did their best to back up The Great One with five minutes that created burst after burst and quality chance after quality chance at both ends of the ice. The teams combined for eight shots that got to the net and a few more that were blocked or missed. Anyone who had to leave early for a Halloween party missed out.

Up next

The Knights will complete three games in three days against a club doing the exact same thing as they go to Guelph for their first meeting of the season against the Storm. You can hear the pregame show and play-by-play beginning at 3:30 on AM980, at www.am980.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.