It has been 15 years since the London Knights and the Sarnia Sting began to bring in the New Year together with a game in one city on New Year’s Eve, followed by a New Year’s Day rematch 108 kilometres down the 402.
It all started on December 31, 2002 in a game that saw everyone leave the Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre with a shrug.
Dennis Wideman had two goals and an assist for London and Reg Thomas countered with two goals for the Sting and the teams ended up in a 5-5 tie. To show just how long ago that was, Knights’ assistant coaches, Dylan Hunter and Rick Steadman played for London. Rick Nash would have, but he was playing for Team Canada as a 17-year old at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Out of the 30 total games played in the home-and-home series, that first one is the only one that failed to find a winner.
The Knights have a decided advantage with 21 victories. Sarnia has eight.
Fourteen of the 30 games have been decided by two goals or less.
The Sting recorded the first official win. It came a day after the 5-5 tie as the teams returned to London where Sarnia’s John Hecimovic sparked a three-goal third period on the way to a 7-4 victory.
The Knights got their first win the following New Year’s Eve as Corey Perry scored twice and added an assist in a 4-1 final in favour of the Knights. Steadman also scored in that game and Dylan Hunter added an assist.
That was the start of five consecutive London wins in the series as they went through the years that took them to Game 7 of the 2004 Western Conference final and then all the way to their first Memorial Cup championship in 2005.
The end of 2007 and the start of 2008 saw the only Sting sweep, that might have been led by Steven Stamkos, only he was in Pardubice at the World Juniors — leaving a Jared Gomes hat trick and six points in two games from Vladimir Nikiforov to make the difference.
The Knights have swept the home-and-home eight times. London also holds the advantage when it comes to most goals for (19 in 2014-15) and fewest against (3 in 04-05 and 11-12).
London also has a 3-2 edge in overtime games. The most memorable happened in 2015-16 when Max Jones scored both OT winners, forcing his way around Jakob Chychrun to score.
The Knights are riding an eight-game winning streak heading into this year’s meetings to end 2017 and begin 2018. They have not lost since January 1, 2013.
That was the game that had London looking to tie the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) record for longest winning streak with their 25th consecutive victory. The Knights jumped out to a 3-0 lead only to have the Sting fight back and win in overtime on a goal by Nikolay Goldobin. Since that goal, it has been all Knights.
London comes into Sarnia for a 2 p.m. New Year’s Eve start having picked up points in six of their past seven games. The only exception was a loss to the Sting on Dec. 15. Sarnia will make a return visit to London on New Year’s Day, 2018 at 4 p.m. at Budweiser Gardens. The Sting have lost three of their past four games. The only exception — the win over London.
All of that should provide good fodder for some fireworks in the 16th installment of the series.
Both games can be heard on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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