The London Knights improved to 8-0-1 in their last nine games with a 5-1 victory over the Kitchener Rangers at Budweiser Gardens.
Evan Bouchard scored once, added two assists, was a plus-three and was named the game’s first star.
Connor McMichael, Alex Turko, Liam Foudy and Nathan Dunkley had the other goals for the Knights. Alexei Lipanov scored the lone goal for Kitchener on a power play that stopped a streak of 21 consecutive penalty kills by London.
Jacob Golden had two assists and was named the game’s third star.
Jordan Kooy stopped 24 of 25 shots in net for the Knights and recorded his seventh win of the season.
The game began with a ceremony honouring veterans on Remembrance Day that saw the Knights line the red carpet and shake hands with every veteran who was part of the on-ice ceremony. The Rangers wore commemorative uniforms that they used at their own Remembrance Day ceremony in Kitchener.
Deadly penalty kill
The Knights went from the first period of a game against the Sarnia Sting on October 21 to the second period of their game against Kitchener on November 11 without surrendering a power play goal. The streak lasted through six-plus games and 21 consecutive opposition power plays.
London is at the top of the list in penalty kill this season, stifling power plays at a 90.4 per cent clip. London has given up six power play goals in 18 games this year.
Russia wins gold at Under-17s
For the first time in four years, Canada’s three teams came home empty-handed from the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, which was played this year in New Brunswick. Russia won gold with a win over Finland, who took home silver. Sweden defeated Canada Red in the bronze medal game in a shootout.
Canada White, which featured Knights forward Luke Evangelista, Knights assistant coach Dylan Hunter and former London Knight Brett Gibson as the team’s head coach came through the round-robin undefeated, but lost to in a shootout against Finland in the quarter-finals.
All Foudy, (almost) all of the time
It began on Thursday as a member of Team OHL in a 3-1 win over Team Russia in Game 3 of the Canada/Russia series. Foudy then played in both games for the Knights on Friday and Sunday and will now finish four games in five days with Game 4 of the Canada/Russia series on Monday in Oshawa. The Blue Jackets prospect will be joined by Knights teammates Alex Formenton and Jordan Kooy and Londoner Ryan Suzuki for the second game against Russia. Knights captain Evan Bouchard and Londoners Nick Suzuki and Isaac Ratcliffe played for Team OHL in the first game.
WATCH: Import draft picks looking to grow in the OHL
Kane and Domi piling up points
The Knights began this year with 27 former players on National Hockey League rosters. The return of Alex Formenton and Evan Bouchard may have shrunk the number slightly, but London fans don’t seem to mind. Numbers have been booming for both Max Domi and Patrick Kane early on in the year. Domi has equalled the number of goals he scored in each of the previous two years (9) in just 17 games. He has 21 points. Kane has 12 goals and nine assists in 16 games in what has been a tough season for the Chicago Blackhawks so far.
Up next
London will play three games in three days in three different cities beginning on Friday, November 16 at home to the Peterborough Petes at Budweiser Gardens. The Petes went 8-2 to begin 2018-19 but have been 3-7 since, including back-to-back losses against Kitchener and Hamilton. After that, the Knights will play a 4:00 game on Saturday in Guelph and then head to Erie for a 4:00 game on Sunday.
Coverage sill begin at 6:30 on Friday and at 3:30 on Saturday and Sunday on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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