Max Jones scored twice in his return to the London Knights lineup and Cliff Pu had a three-point afternoon as London defeated the Storm 5-1 in Guelph on Sunday.
Jones had missed two games following the death of his uncle, but made his presence felt with a goal at even strength and a goal on the power play. London was 3-for-6 on the man advantage against the Storm and have now clicked on 50 per cent of their power plays over their last four games.
“They are really passing that puck around,” said Rick Steadman following the game. “It isn’t the same guys touching the puck all the time. They are going low, going high, taking shots. As a (penalty killer) if you don’t know which look to take away, it gets tough.”
Two of the Knights’ power play goals in Guelph came during a five-minute major that was given to Storm forward, Liam Hawel. He took down London defenceman Shane Collins in open ice during the second period. Collins was not injured on the play.
London now has had five wins in their last six games, with the only loss coming to the number one ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League, the Sarnia Sting.
Jones says, the Knights’ play can be summed up with a single word: Confidence.
“I think we are confident in each other and ourselves and that’s a big part of success for anything in life.”
How the goals were scored
After 66 minutes and 47 seconds without a goal in Guelph this year, London broke the ice on a power play as Cliff Pu found Evan Bouchard, who was coming from the bench after getting a new stick to replace a broken one. Bouchard snapped a shot over the shoulder of Anthony Popovich to make it 1-0 London.
Max Jones made it 2-0 London, scoring from in tight as he backhanded a puck straight up and into the Guelph net.
Jones got his second of the game on another Knight power play at 17:41 of the second period and London went to the dressing room with a 3-0 lead.
Cliff Pu scored 37 seconds into the third period on a power play with a wrist shot to the top corner of the Storm net to increase the Knights’ advantage to 4-0.
Guelph got their only goal of the afternoon on an individual effort from Cedric Ralph. He carried the puck into the London zone, moved to the left side and put a low shot inside the post.
The Knights restored their four goal lead at the 8:40 mark as Popovich got a piece of his shot from the slot, but it trickled across the goal line to complete the scoring in a 5-1 London win.
If a stick works, keep it
When Bouchard broke his stick in the second period, he raced to the bench for a new one and then got back into the play and scored on his first shot with the new stick. Bouchard’s stick story is an interesting one. Roughly a year ago, Evan Bouchard was looking for something that would get him going offensively. Every puck he shot seemed to find a leg, a pad or a post. It just would not go in. Knights’ assistant coach Dylan Hunter decided to give Bouchard a new stick. Londoner Drew Doughty had left one of his behind for athletic trainer Doug Stacey to use in his rec hockey games and that was the one that Dylan grabbed. That stick broke quickly, but the pattern was one that fit perfectly for Bouchard, so more were ordered and Bouchard responded with 11 goals the rest of the way and this season, the Oakville native has eight more this year.
The streak continues for Cliff Pu
Cliff Pu added two assists to his impressive total of points over the past two weeks with two more against the Storm on Sunday. The reigning Canadian Hockey League player of the week now has 22 points on a 10-game point scoring streak. Sam Miletic of the Knights was held off the scoresheet for the first time in 10 games.
The current city of champions
London is the only major city in Canada that has seen its three marquee sports teams win championships in the past 18 months. The London Knights won the Memorial Cup in May of 2016. The London Lightning won the National Basketball League of Canada title in June of 2017 and the Western Mustang football team won the Vanier Cup on Saturday in Hamilton.
One win away
Dale Hunter won his first game as a head coach in November of 2001. Just over 16 years later, Hunter has led his teams to four OHL Championships and two Memorial Cup championships. He has a higher winning percentage than any coach to ever step behind an Ontario Hockey League bench and stay there as long as he has. Hunter is now one win away from his 700th victory in the Ontario Hockey League. He currently ranks third all-time behind Brian Kilrea, who has 1193 career wins, and the late Bert Templeton, who has 907.
Next Up
Dale Hunter’s first chance to reach 700 victories will come against the Oshawa Generals on Fri., Dec. 2 at Budweiser Gardens. The Knights and Generals met back in early October in Oshawa and the Generals squeaked out a 5-4 win.
You can hear coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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