In their return from the holiday break, the London Knights and the Windsor Spitfires did their best impressions of a certain guy who wears a red suit and travels the world on December 24 bringing gifts.
The teams gave fans at Budweiser Gardens sacks and sacks of goals in an 8-6 London victory on Friday night.
London led the game by as many as four goals, but the Spitfires put on their best Grinchy expression and kept coming back. They cut the London lead to two goals twice and then to one goal for a second time with under five minutes remaining in regulation before Paul Cotter completed a day that would have had all of Whoville singing, as he scored twice, added two assists and signed his first NHL contract.
Josh Nelson also had two goals for London and Connor McMichael continued his hot streak with a goal and an assist. McMichael now has 13 points in his last six games.
The Spitfires outshot the Knights 40-35.
The win was Dale Hunter’s 750th.
London is now 3-1 against Windsor this year. They will see each other twice in the month of January to conclude their season series.
How the goals were scored
Windsor opened the scoring on an individual effort by second-year defenceman Louka Henault who cut in front of the Knights net from the left side of the London zone and squeezed the puck between the legs of Joseph Raaymakers to put the Spitfires up 1-0.
The Spitfires managed to keep the Knights without a shot on goal for 11 minutes and six seconds. That’s when the Knights recorded two shots in a single second. The first one by Tonio Stranges was stopped by Windsor goalie Kari Piiroinen, but the second one was wristed high, off the post and into the Spitfires net by Paul Cotter to tie the game 1-1.
Cotter set up Nathan Dunkley to give London a 2-1 advantage at 14:17 of the first period. Cotter came into the Windsor zone with speed and looked as though he was going to carry the puck around the net, but he dished it behind him to Dunkley who picked up his 11th goal of the season.
Billy Moskal snapped home the Knights’ third straight goal from Alex Turko and Cole Tymkin just under five minutes into the second period and then Josh Nelson had a pass across the crease go off Windsor defenceman Connor Corcoran and in as he hit double-digits with his tenth goal of the year. That put London ahead 4-1.
Joey Keane’s first point as a Knight was a slick pass to the side of the Spitfires net on a London power play. It found Liam Foudy and he wristed the puck past Piiroinen to make it 5-1 for the Knights.
Cole Purboo single-handedly got Windsor back into the game with back-to-back goals before the end of the second period. Purboo knocked in a loose puck in front of the net for his first goal of the game and then stole a puck in the London zone and scored his second on a wrist shot from about the left hash mark to cut the Knights lead to 5-3 through 40 minutes.
Josh Nelson’s second of the night made it 6-3 for London at 5:38 of the third period as he jumped in from the point on a Knights power play and buried a puck that was bouncing around in front.
Just 17 seconds later, Will Cuylle backhanded a shot into the London net to cut the gap to two goals at 6-4.
Windsor made it 6-5 at 12:13 when Curtis Douglas deflected a Connor Corcoran shot past Raaymakers, but Connor McMichael eased some of the tension in the building by netting his 23rd of the year just 1:11 later to give London a 7-5 edge.
The Spitfires still would not back down and got to within a goal again courtesy of Daniel D’Amico, who lifted a puck into the Knights net on a two-man advantage with just over four minutes to play.
Paul Cotter finally sealed things for London with an empty-netter from centre ice at 18:04.
Brother act
When the London Knights made a deal to get Joey Keane from the Barrie Colts, they created the latest set of brothers on their roster. The most recent was Liam and Richard Whittaker, although they only played in one regular season game together. They did combine on a goal during the 2017 pre-season. The most prolific pair of brothers on the Knights so far would be Matt and Ryan Rupert. Put their totals together and you get 574 Ontario Hockey League games played, two OHL championships and three Memorial Cup tournaments.
All Knights, all the time
The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 in Columbus on Friday night in a game that featured five ex-Knights. The first goal of the game came with a whole lot of green and gold attention. John Tavares scored it on a power play. The assists went to Mitch Marner and Nazem Kadri. The power play happened because Josh Anderson was given a two-minute minor for tripping and the penalty was called by Cory Syvret. Every one of those names used to be on the back of a London Knight uniform.
Vegas baby
The Vegas Golden Knights have signed London Knights forward Paul Cotter to a three-year entry-level contract. Cotter is 19 years old and has played in 12 games for London this season and has two goals and eight points. Vegas selected him in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. Cotter finished fourth in USHL scoring last season while playing with the Lincoln Stars and had four goals and four assists in seven playoff games for Lincoln.
Canada off to a 2-0 start at World Juniors
The games were very different, but both resulted in a victory for Canada in Vancouver at the 2019 World Junior Hockey Championship. Knights captain Evan Bouchard had three assists in Canada’s 14-0 blowout of Denmark to open the tournament. Londoner Nick Suzuki added an assist in that game. Suzuki picked up another assist on Thursday night as Canada held on to beat Switzerland 3-2. Team Canada will play the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Up next
The Knights will play their final two games of 2018 against the Sarnia Sting. London will be in Sarnia on Dec. 30 at 2 p.m. and then will come home to face the Sting at Budweiser Gardens at 4 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. London has a 3-0-0-1 record against Sarnia this season. Their only loss came in a shootout in Sarnia on Dec. 12.
The first game of 2019 for the Knights will take place in St. Catharines against the Niagara Ice Dogs on Jan. 3. London will be home to Sault Ste. Marie the next night.
All games can be heard on 980 CFPL, at 980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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