Alex Formenton scored with 3:31 to go in the game to give the London Knights a 4-3 victory over the Petes in Peterborough on Thursday night.
The victory kicked off three games in four days for the Knights through central and eastern Ontario.
Peterborough has not been an easy place to win in 2017-18. The Petes came into the game with London with one of the best home-ice records in the Ontario Hockey League.
The teams went back and forth through the first 56 minutes before Formenton’s eventual game-winner as the Knights found ways to tie the game three separate times.
Liam Foudy and Nathan Dunkley each had a goal and an assist and Alec Regula added two assists.
Joseph Raaymakers made 38 saves in the London net.
London assistant coach Dylan Hunter was happy with the resiliency the Knights kept showing.
“As much as we can cheerlead on the bench or tell them what to do, it’s up to them,” said Dylan Hunter. “Getting a win like this is a great learning experience.”
The victory allowed the Knights to keep pace with the Owen Sound Attack, who blanked the Otters 4-0 in Erie. London is one point back of Owen Sound for fourth place in the Western Conference. Both teams have eight games remaining in the regular season. None of those games are against each other.
How the goals were scored
The Petes got the first one at the 11:56 mark of the first period as Declan Chisholm slid a pass into the high slot to Bobby Dow and he fired a shot high to make it 1-0.
The score stayed that way until early in the second period when Foudy carried down the right side of the ice, got into the Peterborough zone and stopped. Foudy looked off the nearest defender to him and goaltender Dylan Wells, making both believe he was going to pass the puck and then he wristed a shot off Wells and into the Petes’ net to tie things up 1-1.
The Petes went ahead a second time on a goal by their captain Logan DeNoble who found a way to get a centering feed over Joseph Raaymakers and into the London net.
Again, the Knights came back. Sergey Popov carried across the Peterborough blue line, got to the top of the right circle and snapped a shot past Wells and it was 2-2.
The game see-sawed one final time as DeNoble struck for his second goal of the game as he corralled a ricochet off a blocked shot and put the puck into the top corner, but Nathan Dunkley brought London back a third time.
Knights forward Billy Moskal sent a pass from the right side of the Peterborough end in behind the net to Foudy and headed to the net. Using Moskal as a decoy, Foudy slid a pass by him and onto the stick of Dunkley who shot and scored with 6:50 to go in regulation time.
That set the stage for Formenton’s game-winning goal as he flew down the right wing, cut around a defender, across the crease and slid the puck into the net at 16:29 of the third period.
Bouchard becoming tough to catch
Knights captain Evan Bouchard entered Thursday night with a 10-point lead on all other OHL defencemen for most points in 2017-18. Every team now has fewer than 10 games remaining on their schedule, so catching Bouchard in that race will be tough. Catching him as the leading London Knights scorer is next to impossible. The Oakville native has a 26-point lead in that race. No defenceman has ever led the Knights in scoring in a single season. The late Chris McCauley owns the Knights’ single-season scoring record. He had 114 points in 1981-82, which ranks fourth all-time behind Bryan Fogarty (155) and Jamie Rivers and Scott MacLellan (121).
Greyhounds clinch
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds clinched the Hamilton Spectator Trophy with a 4-1 victory in Saginaw on Wednesday night. The ‘Hounds are guaranteed to have the best record of any team in 2017-18. The question now becomes, just how good will it be? Through 60 games, Sault Ste. Marie has lost just six times in regulation. With eight games remaining, they can’t get to the 2004-05 London Knights’ record of 59 wins in a season. But could still tie that same Knights team for most points (120) and could still break London’s record for fewest regulation losses (7).
Up next
The Knights will visit the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday night for a bit of a reunion. Knights forwards Nathan Dunkley and Sergey Popov go up against their old teammates, while Knights players face Cliff Pu for the first time since London and Kingston swung two separate deals at the OHL trade deadline. Max Jones was also traded to the Frontenacs, but is out with an injury. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.com and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
Comments