The London Knights equalled their highest offensive output of the year on Friday night with a 7-3 victory over the Peterborough Petes at Budweiser Gardens.
London has now won seven consecutive games.
Six Knights had multi-point games.
Adam Boqvist was a plus four and picked up two assists. Alex Formenton now has three goals on the season as he scored twice on breakaways to help London build a 5-0 lead before Peterborough scored their first goal of the game. Liam Foudy and Matvey Guskov each scored once and added an assist. Evan Bouchard and Connor McMichael had a pair of assists apiece.
London outshot the Petes 43-20 as Joseph Raaymakers picked up his sixth victory of the season.
The win vaults London past the Owen Sound Attack into first place in the Midwest Division. A Sault Ste. Marie loss to the Ottawa 67’s on home ice moved the Knights even with the Greyhounds for top spot in the Western Conference. London has three games in hand on both teams.
How the goals were scored
The Knights’ offence ignited at 7:10 of the first period as Nathan Dunkley blasted a one-timer past Peterborough goaltender Hunter Jones on a slick feed from Connor McMichael to the right of the Petes’ net.
Alex Formenton put London ahead 2-0 at 10:28 with his first goal of the game as he zoomed past two Peterborough defenders and shot a puck inside the left post for his second goal of the season.
Former Pete Matthew Timms cut in from the left point, made a toe-drag move and nearly scored against his old team. His shot was stopped by Jones, but it trickled off his body and Josh Nelson of the Knights was there to knock it in to make it 3-0.
Just 33 seconds later, Formenton scored his second of the game and third of the season to give London a four-goal lead after 20 minutes.
Early in the second period, Matvey Guskov grabbed a puck on the right side of the Peterborough zone and fired it high over Tye Austin for a 5-0 Knights lead. Austin replaced Jones in the Petes’ net to begin period two.
The Petes grabbed some momentum late in the second with goals from Pavel Gogolev and Christopher Paquette.
London doused that to begin the third period as Cole Tymkin picked up his 11th goal of the season and the Knights led 6-2.
Paquette and Liam Foudy exchanged goals before the end of the game and the Knights rode to a four-goal victory to begin a busy weekend.
Russia takes Canada/Russia series
The Canadian Hockey League still has the overall lead, but the 2018 Canada/Russia series went to Team Russia in 2018. Two wins over the QMJHL gave them a 4-2 edge. Team OHL, which featured Liam Foudy, Jordan Kooy, Alex Formenton and Evan Bouchard of the Knights and Londoners Isaac Ratcliffe and Nick and Ryan Suzuki split two games that were played in Sarnia and Oshawa. The very first game of the series was played in London in 2003. Corey Perry and Londer Jeff Carter both played for Team OHL and while Russia managed to keep them off the scoresheet, Team OHL won 7-1.
A new chapter for Rob Schremp
If you were able to add in the points Rob Schremp accumulated in the Ontario Hockey League with the Mississauga Ice Dogs before coming to the London Knights, he would actually be the biggest scorer in Knights history. Schremp scored 154 goals and had 384 points. Corey Perry is London’s all-time leading scorer with 380 points. That is the kind of impact Schremp had offensively. He was the guy who was always working on skills and tricks. He could flip a pass over two sticks and have it land flat on the ice for a teammate to tap it in or he could set up at the top of the left circle and wire slap shots at the net until he eventually found the back of it. Schremp officially announced his retirement from professional hockey this week, although he says he is already playing in a men’s league.
Up next
The Knights will meet the Storm in Guelph on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. This will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams. Liam Foudy scored twice for the Knights the first time they played, tying things in the third period to earn London a point before the Storm won in overtime on a goal by Nate Schnarr. The Knights were finishing three games in three days at that time.
They will play a third game in three days after tangling with the Storm as they go to Erie for their first game against the Otters since a set of pre-season match-ups in London and Komoka in September.
980 CFPL will have the pre-game show from Guelph at 3 p.m. on Saturday and at 3:30 p.m. from Erie on Sunday.
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