Jordan Kooy made 25 saves for his first-ever Ontario Hockey League shutout as the London Knights blanked the Kingston Frontenacs 3-0 on Friday night to make it two straight victories on their Eastern road trip.
London limited an explosive offence to only 13 shots through the first 40 minutes of the game. Kooy made timely saves and the Knights used a patient pace of play to get the puck out of their zone, through centre ice and deep in the Kingston end, again and again.
Liam Foudy scored twice and was named the game’s first star. He now has three goals in two games to begin the Eastern swing.
The victory moved London a point ahead of the Owen Sound Attack and back into fourth place in the Western Conference standings.
The Attack will host the Guelph Storm on Saturday.
The Knights will travel to Ottawa on Saturday and play the 67’s on Sunday afternoon.
How the goals were scored
Foudy used his speed to put a scare into the Ontario Hockey League goalie of the month early in the first period. With the Knights killing a penalty, the puck was shot down the ice and Foudy zoomed after it and forced Jeremy Helvig to leave his crease and try to chip the puck by Foudy. Instead, Helvig gave the puck to Foudy and he wristed it into an empty net for a 1-0 London lead.
Billy Moskal put the Knights ahead 2-0 at 11:11 of the second period as he knocked an Evan Bouchard pass on goal and then found the ricochet and fired it behind Helvig to make it 2-0 London.
Foudy finished the scoring with a highlight rush through centre that saw the second-year forward cut between two Kingston defenders and deke Helvig for his 23rd goal of the year.
An island is forming
It isn’t near the Galapagos or off the coast of Iceland. It is forming in the middle of the OHL’s Western Conference. On that island are the London Knights and the Owen Sound Attack. They used to have company. Just over three weeks ago, the Knights, the Attack, the Saginaw Spirit and the Guelph Storm were all separated by just one point in the standings, stretch from fourth place to sixth. Now the gap between London and Owen Sound is just one point and the drop-off from there is eight points and they are far too many points away from third place to have any shot at moving up. Chances are becoming slim that Saginaw or Guelph will be able to catch either of them, meaning that the Knights and the Attack could very likely find themselves head to head in round one of the playoffs. Their last meeting came in round one in 2016, when London fell behind two games to one to the Attack and then didn’t lose another game on their way to a Memorial Cup championship.
Knights hit 200
Liam Foudy’s 22nd goal at 2:51 of the first period was London’s 200th of the season. London has never scored fewer than 200 goals in a single year during the Hunter era. The last time it happened was 1999-2000, the year before Mark and Dale Hunter purchased the team. It would be easy to think that the Knights’ highest goal total came during their record-setting 2004-2005 year, but that is not the case. The likes of Corey Perry, Dylan Hunter, Dave Bolland and Robbie Schremp accounted for 310 goals that season. The highest goal total in London team history happened when the Knights won their second Memorial Cup in 2015-2016. Mitch Marner, Matthew Tkachuk, Christian Dvorak and the rest of the roster put up 319 goals that year.
Max Jones still out
Former London Knight Max Jones did not play against his old team on Friday. He is getting closer to a return to the Kingston lineup, but still remains out with a broken finger that has required surgery and two trips to Anaheim for Ducks’ medical staff to repair and then oversee Jones’ recovery. The Orion, Mich., native was selected 24th overall by Anaheim. He has only appeared in six games for the Frontenacs since being acquired from London on Jan. 7.
Up next
The Knights will complete three road games in four days in Ottawa on Sunday afternoon against the 67’s. The teams met just over a week ago in London, and Ottawa walked away from Budweiser Gardens with a 4-2 win. London will be out to return the favour. The pre-game show begins at 1:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.