Anthony Popovich made 37 saves for his first Ontario Hockey League (OHL) shutout as the Storm blanked the London Knights 4-0 in Guelph on Sunday.
Both teams were playing their third game in under 48 hours. The Knights had picked up wins over Flint and Hamilton, while the Storm split shootout victories with the Erie Otters in a home-and-home series.
London and Guelph stayed deadlocked for the first 26 minutes and five seconds, before the Storm broke through.
Knights’ assistant coach Dylan Hunter said when two teams are battling fatigue, that first goal really changes the complexion of what is happening on the ice.
“It’s huge because you can play the game a whole lot different when you get that first one. Once you get down by one, you have to bring the pace up a little bit more and pinch and attack the puck and we just didn’t have the legs for it today.”
The loss was London’s first since Oct. 15, when they were edged by Owen Sound in overtime. It was the Knights’ first regulation loss since Oct. 13 against Windsor.
It was also the first defeat on the record of Joseph Raaymakers since he arrived in London in a trade with Sault. Ste. Marie. Raaymakers made 26 stops on Sunday.
How the goals were scored
After enough saves to make a grumpy baseball manager smile, Cam Hills broke the scoreless tie after 26 minutes and six seconds of action. He took a feed from Alexey Toropchenko as he skated toward the London net and snapped a low shot inside the post to the stick side of Raaymakers for a 1-0 Storm lead.
Ryan Merkley made it 2-0 for Guelph with what showed up as a short-handed goal on the game sheet. As the Storm tipped the puck out of their own zone, the teams were at four-on-four, but a penalty to the Knights ended as the play came down the ice two-on-one. Alec Regula blocked a pass to stop the initial threat, but the puck bounced right to Ryan Merkley and he buried a shot into the back of the London net.
Nate Schnarr scored on a power-play rush in the third period, wiring a shot high through some traffic created by Londoner Isaac Ratcliffe, whose six-foot-six frame casts a very large shadow. That goal out the Storm ahead 3-0.
James McEwan finished the scoring with his third of the season as he finished off a Guelph passing play to the left of the London net, just past the halfway mark of the third period.
Massive stops
Nate Schnarr got a puck in behind the Knight net and rifled a pass out front to Cedric Ralph, who stepped into a shot and likely expected to celebrate the first goal of the game — but Raaymakers went into the spread-eagle splits and snapped the puck out of the air with his glove.
Then, in the second period, Raaymakers topped that stop. Londoner Isaac Ratcliffe got a wrist shot away that Raaymakers stopped, only to have the rebound bounce to his left where St. Louis’ draft pick Alex Toropchenko got a shot off.
You don’t usually record a 37-save shutout without a big stop along the way and the biggest from Popovich came off Cliff Pu as the Buffalo Sabres’ prospect cut to the front of the Storm net and got a hard wrist shot away that Popovich was able to get a pad on.
Regula a major plus
Alec Regula is only 17-years-old but he leads London in plus-minus in the early going of the 2017-18 season. With the departure of Victor Mete, Regula hasn’t been able to build his plus-five total against fellow rookies. During the past two weeks, he has found himself teamed with Evan Bouchard, often going up against the opposition’s top line.
The unforgiving west
The Knights earned eight out of a possible eight points in the four games they played prior to their trip to Guelph and yet still sit three points out of a playoff spot. Fortunately, there are still 53 games left in the regular season.
Up next
The Knights will host the Saginaw Spirit on Fri., Nov. 3 at Budweiser Gardens. London heads to Owen Sound on Nov. 4 to play the Attack. You can hear every Knights’ game on AM980, at www.am980.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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