Joseph Raaymakers made 34 saves and Cliff Pu had a three-point afternoon as the London Knights blanked the Spitfires 4-0 in Windsor on Sunday afternoon.
The victory takes London’s record to 9-2-2 in their last 13 games and gets them back to the .500 mark for the first time since night two of the season.
“That was the mark we were looking for after the start that we had,” said assistant coach Rick Steadman. “Anytime you can come back out of a hole and see the chemistry the team is building right now, that’s what you want.”
London is now 10-10-2 on the year and right back in the mix in the Western Conference.
The game in Windsor also completed one of the busiest stretches on the London schedule that saw them play four times in six days.
Pu couldn’t help but smile a bit when asked if it was nice to finish up with a shutout win in Windsor.
“These games aren’t easy. It was nice to be able to do what we did here today.”
It’s not like the Knights can kick back and relax a bit. They now have two days to prepare for their first game of the year against Sarnia on Wednesday night.
The Sting have been jockeying with the Soo Greyhounds for first place in the overall standings over the past week and a half.
How the goals were scored
With London on a power play in the first period, a puck came to Evan Bouchard on the right side of the Windsor zone and he wristed a shot on goal just as Cliff Pu slid through view of Spitfires’ goalie Michael DiPietro.
The puck ticked off Pu and found the back of the net. Pu extended his point streak to seven games and Bouchard picked up his 24th point on the year. He currently sits third in scoring among Ontario Hockey League defencemen.
Windsor defenceman Sean Day tried to skate the puck out of his zone in the second period only to run into Tyler Rollo, who stole the puck away. That created a 3-on-1 going to the Spitfires’ net with Richard Whittaker and Josh Nelson.
Rollo fed Nelson and Nelson gave the puck right back to the Burlington native, who snapped his second goal as a Knight into an open side to make it 2-0 London.
On a power play later in the second, Pu found Jones in the slot and he ripped a wrist shot over DiPietro’s shoulder to give the Knights a 3-0 lead through 40 minutes.
Pu struck again for his second goal of the game just 43 seconds into the third period as he tipped in the final goal of the game.
London kept Windsor at bay from there, helping Raaymakers earn his second shutout as a Knight.
Heads up
Robert Thomas had three shots on goal in the game, and two of them went right off DiPietro’s head. DiPietro was forced to recover quickly as Sam Miletic tried to jam the puck past him at the side of the net.
Century club
Max Jones’ goal gave him his 100th career point.
Hot Knights
Robert Thomas has raced his way to 30 points and has 14 of those in his past seven games. Sam Miletic is also on a seven-game point streak, with 14 points in those seven games. Pu has been the hottest Knight with 17 points in his last seven contests — but that was news to him after the game.
“I honestly didn’t even know that,” admitted the Buffalo Sabres’ prospect. “I have found some good chemistry with my linemates … and on the power play. We’ve all worked well together and things are clicking the right way. Hopefully we can keep it up.”
Closing in on 700
Of Ontario Hockey League head coaches, Dale Hunter was the fastest to 500 wins and then 600 wins. He hit that latest milestone on October 31, 2015. Now, Hunter is about to become the coach quickest to reach 700 victories, sitting only three wins away from that mark.
Turko’s return
Alex Turko is set to rejoin the Knights’ lineup when they head for Sarnia on Wednesday. Turko has now served all ten games of a suspension for a hit that made contact with the head of Trent Fox of the Mississauga Steelheads on October 22.
Waiting for Sarnia
The next London game will take place at the far end of the 402 on Wednesday and has a chance to be one of many classics between the Knights and the Sting this season. The teams are each other’s closest rival geographically and have managed to meet just one time in the playoffs — ever. That was back in 1999 in the first round, when London won the series in six games.
Sarnia has between one of the top teams in the OHL from the start of this year, winning 14 games in a row between Sept. 30 and Nov. 3, and the odds of a London-Sarnia series in the post-season are as good as they have ever been. The odds of seeing the teams play some excellent hockey against each other might be even better.
Wednesday’s pregame show gets going at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca or on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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