Max Jones scored twice and added two assists as the London Knights defeated the Erie Otters 6-2 at Budweiser Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
With a brand new layer of snow outside, the Knights did their best impression of a snowball rolling down a hill as they picked up momentum as the game wore on and came out with their biggest offensive output in the month of December.
After a frustrating start to three games in four days in St. Catharines on Thursday in which the puck seemed to refuse to find its way into the Niagara Ice Dogs’ net, London assistant coach Rick Steadman said it was great to see the Knights convert on their opportunities against the Otters.
“There are so many little variables in this game and that’s why it is so hard to be consistent. We know we have been getting chances and (as coaches) we like that because we know eventually the puck is going to go in.”
London took full advantage of their 23 shots on goal and got some excellent stops from Joseph Raaymakers in the 24 pucks that Erie put on their net.
Steadman pointed to Jones as a perfect example of a player being rewarded for doing the right things.
“He’s been trying to get assists and points and help the team out and everything has just seemed to be bouncing the wrong way and he goes out and has a big game and really helped us get a win that we really needed.”
The victory leap-frogged the Knights into sixth place in the Western Conference for a few hours until the Saginaw Spirit bounced back from a 7-1 loss on their home ice Saturday to beat the Generals 3-1 in Oshawa on Sunday evening.
London is now 14-5-1 in their past 20 games, leaving them with one of the best records in the OHL over that span.
The Knights and Otters will meet again on Tuesday in Erie.
How the goals were scored
Goals didn’t start to flow until the 7:21 mark of the second period when Sam Miletic found Cliff Pu in the slot and he snapped a shot past Daniel Murphy in the Erie net to make it 1-0 for London.
The Otters battled back to tie it on a power play just over three minutes later as veteran forward, Kyle Maksimovich finished an Erie passing play to the right of the Knight net.
London took the lead again as Miletic grabbed a rebound off a Max Jones shot and roofed it in tight to make it 2-1.
Knights’ rookie defenceman, Andrew Perrott, scored his very first OHL goal at 17:50 of the second period to give London a 3-1 lead. The Columbia Station, Ohio, native took a puck in the high slot and wristed it through traffic into the Otters’ net with Knights’ captain Robert Thomas standing on the doorstep. Thomas picked the puck out of the net for a key souvenir in Perrott’s collection.
Erie managed to close the gap to a goal before the second intermission as they went to a man advantage with just under 15 seconds remaining, won the face-off in the London end and Ivan Lodnia beat the buzzer to send the teams to their dressing rooms with the Knights on top 3-2.
Early in the third, Max Jones stole a puck at the London line and powered through three zones, raced alone to the Otters’ net and beat Murphy to the stick side for his first goal of the game and a 4-2 bulge for the Knights.
Jones scored his second of the game, racking up his fourth point with a one-timer that tested how tightly wound the net behind Murphy was. Jones blasted a feed from Pu through the Erie rookie for his 18th goal of the season.
Robert Thomas finished off the scoring with his 20th of the season, unassisted on a London power play.
A camping trio
Robert Thomas and Alex Formenton will head to St. Catharines on Monday for Team Canada’s final World Junior selection camp. It runs from Dec. 9 – Dec. 12. Max Jones will report to Team USA’s selection camp this week as well.
Century club
Perrott’s goal was the Knights’ 100th on the season. Should Thomas, Formenton and Jones make Team Canada and Team USA and head to the World Junior tournament in Buffalo, they would take 47 of the 103 goals London has scored this year with them, opening the door for other players to step through it.
Perfect when leading after two
The Knights improved to 10-0-0-0 when leading after two periods. London has lost only one game this year when leading after the first period.
Next up
The teams meet again on Tuesday in Erie. Counting the pre-season, it will be the fifth time they have gone head to head this year. Coverage begins at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
After that, the Knights will have one more weekend before an 11-day holiday break. They host Sarnia on Friday, Dec. 15, Mississauga on Saturday, Dec. 16 and go to Owen Sound for an afternoon game on Sunday, Dec. 17.