If you broke down the matchup between the London Knights and the Kitchener Rangers before the game, a victory for London looked like a tough task.
Not only were they facing a list of veterans from Kitchener, beginning with Adam Mascherin, Givani Smith and Logan Stanley, London was missing three key players of their own in Evan Bouchard, Liam Foudy and Nathan Dunkley.
The Knights didn’t seem to let that phase them as they battled Kitchener all the way through a five-round shootout that featured four goal posts and five saves, before eventually falling 3-2 in the end.
The 10th shooter in the skills competition, Givani Smith, managed to slide the puck underneath London goalie Joseph Raaymakers for the winner.
Raaymakers said afterwards that the Knights can feel proud of how they played.
“That was a huge stepping stone for us,” outlined the native of Chatham. “It just shows that we can compete with teams that are going for it and if we continue to play like that every night, we’re going to be good.”
Raaymakers and his Kitchener counterpart, Luke Richardson, both made big stops all night, but Raaymakers owned the biggest, robbing Joseph Garreffa of Kitchener as he tried to convert a cross-ice pass.
“The pass went over and I just kind of stretched out,” admitted Raaymakers. “The shot ended up being kind of a floater and luckily I got my glove up there and just kind of reacted to it.”
London forward Alex Formenton scored once and spent the rest of the game creating offensive chances, that included a breakaway which demonstrated Formenton’s flat-out foot speed.
“All four of our lines were getting gritty,” explained the World Junior gold medallist. “That’s how we stuck in there the whole game. It wasn’t the turnout we wanted but I think it was a good effort.”
London outshot the Rangers 31-25. The Knights were 0-for-5 on the power play, while the Rangers were 1-for-3.
How the goals were scored
Alex Formenton began the scoring at 5:53 by stealing the puck just inside the left circle of the Kitchener end, took one stride and lifted a shot under the crossbar for a 1-0 London lead.
Just 58 seconds later Alex Turko made it 2-0 for the Knights as he took a pass from Dalton Duhart, deked to his backhand and scored his first OHL goal, beating Luke Richardson of the Rangers.
Only 30 seconds after that, the Rangers cut the lead in half. Knights’ goalie Joseph Raaymakers made a right pad save, but the puck went right to the stick of Givani Smith to the left of the London net and he tapped the puck across the goal line to make it 2-1.
Kitchener tied the game in the second period on a power play as their captain, Connor Bunnaman, tapped in a feed from Adam Mascherin in front of the London net.
The goalies kept the score that way through the end of regulation and overtime.
Smith made a move in tight in his shootout chance and slid the game-winner into the Knight net.
Turko scores his first OHL goal for the second time
It’s a difficult feat to pull off. Turko was involved in a scrum in front of the net earlier this year that saw two or three London Knights’ stick whacking at the puck. One of them knocked it across the goal line and originally, it was thought that the stick belonged to Turko and he was given credit. After further review, the goal was taken away. His goal against the Rangers will not suffer the same fate and the backhand deke that got it will make for a much better story for his grandchildren than, “I just whacked away in a scrum.”
Top prospects set to show their stuff
The top 40 prospects (with injury replacements) from the Canadian Hockey League have come together in Guelph for three days. They will participate in skills competitions on Wednesday and then split into Team Cherry and Team Orr for Thursday’s main event. Don Cherry and Eric Lindros will handle the coaching duties this year. London captain, Evan Bouchard, will play for Team Cherry. Liam Foudy of the Knights will play for Team Orr.
Up next
The London Knights continue their five-game homestand on Friday as they host the Owen Sound Attack. Owen Sound has been sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference, but they have reeled off three consecutive victories. Game time is 7:30 p.m. Coverage on 980 CFPL and the Radioplayer Canada app gets going at 6:30 p.m.
The Knights will host the Guelph Storm on Sunday, Jan. 28 at 2 p.m.
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