Liam Foudy scored twice and added an assist as the London Knights defeated the Oshawa Generals 5-3 in Oshawa on Sunday evening.
Foudy’s offensive output ran his point streak into double digits. The Columbus Blue Jackets prospect has 17 points in 10 straight games and a goal in each of nine straight games.
Both of Foudy’s goals were part of a crazy third period in which the teams combined for six goals and took turns holding the lead.
With the Knights down 3-2, London assistant coach Rick Steadman credited work by Billy Moskal, Matvey Guskov and Josh Nelson in the offensive zone with swinging momentum back the Knights’ way.
Moskal set up Nelson to tie the game and then, 42 seconds later, Cole Tymkin put London ahead to stay.
Knights defenceman Will Lochead says the busy schedule London has had, coupled with the physicality of a game like the one in Oshawa, is a good thing to go through right now.
London made it three wins in four days, and the team now sits two points back of the Ottawa 67’s for first place overall with two games in hand after Ottawa played three games in three days this weekend and won them all.
Both goalies were a big story in the game. Watch for replays of Joseph Raaymakers’ paddle stop on a pass in front by Oshawa’s Brett Neumann that hit the skate of Nelson and was trickling to the goal line before Raaymakers brought down his goal stick like a meat cleaver and cut off the path of the puck.
Raaymakers made other big stops and ran a shutout streak to 102:56 dating back to Thursday before the Generals managed to put a puck past him.
Kyle Keyser of the Generals came under fire over and over and found ways to put his big body in the way of scoring opportunities for the Knights. He stopped Nathan Dunkley on a penalty shot in the third period to give Oshawa a chance at one last push. Keyser made 40 saves in the game. Raaymakers made 26.
London will go on the road for the seventh time in eight games on Wednesday when they play the Firebirds in Flint.
How the goals were scored
Connor McMichael’s 29th goal of the season got the scoring started as Adam Boqvist grabbed a puck that popped in the air on a Kevin Hancock pass and zipped it to his left to McMichael, who had half a net to shoot at and made good. McMichael is from Ajax and heard the cheers of quite a few friends and family in attendance.
A power-play goal by the Generals tied the game 1-1 with 1:07 to go in the second period as a puck bounced off two London Knight legs and went to Allan McShane of Oshawa, and he ripped a shot into the London net.
Former Knight Nic Mattinen broke the tie just over a minute into the third period on a man advantage as he banged a puck through Raaymakers’ pads while standing in front of the Knights crease.
Foudy tied the game again on a short-handed breakaway that saw him speed to the Generals and deke the puck past Keyser at 5:56.
Just over 90 seconds later as an Oshawa power play ended, former Sarnia forward Anthony Salinitri blasted the Generals back in front with a slap shot from the right side of the London zone.
Once again, the Knights tied the game as Moskal set up Nelson.
Only 42 seconds after that, Tymkin had London back in front. Keyser stopped Foudy, but Tymkin grabbed the rebound and banked it off a leg and in to make it 4-3.
Foudy sped by everyone and got to an empty Generals net to score the final goal of the game and his 25th of the season with one minute left in the contest.
Hardest shot goes to John Carlson
Former Knights defenceman John Carlson added another trophy to a case that already includes a Stanley Cup and a gold medal from the World Junior Hockey Championship. On Friday night in San Jose, Carlson fired a puck 102.8 miles per hour with his first shot in the hardest shot competition of the All-Star skills contest, and no one else was able to beat it. That performance stood up against every other contestant, including teammate Alex Ovechkin, who won last year. Zdeno Chara still holds the all-time record at 108.8 miles per hour.
Felhaber hits 50
Tye Felhaber opened the scoring at home to the Oshawa Generals on Saturday and, in doing so, scored his 50th goal of the season in his 47th game. The Pembroke native is on pace to become the first 70-plus goal scorer since John Tavares did it at the age of 16 in 2006-07 when he played in Oshawa. Tavares scored 72 goals that year and right now, that is the exact pace Felhaber is on. He has only been held off the score sheet entirely five times in 47 games. Two of those games came against the London Knights.
Katelyn Gosling and Brittany Howard to represent Canada
The Canada-U.S.A women’s hockey Rivalry Series will start on Feb. 12 at Budweiser Gardens, and two players will get to play for their country on their home turf. Londoner Katelyn Gosling grew up playing for the Devilettes and then starred at Western, eventually becoming captain of the Mustangs. She is currently a member of the CWHL’s Calgary Inferno.
Howard is from St. Thomas and also grew up playing for the Devilettes. She played NCAA at Robert Morris and is the school’s all-time leading scorer. She was selected 10th overall by the Buffalo Beauts of the NWHL.
Up next
The Knights have played six of their past seven games on the road, and they aren’t quite finished yet. They will make their second trip to Flint on Wednesday, Jan. 30. The Firebirds began the season without a victory in their first 17 games. Take those away and they are still 9-21-2. Cut that down again to their last 10 games and they are 4-5-1. They have been improving. They have scored 20 goals in their past five games. London has beaten the Firebirds 4-2 and 6-2 this year. Both of those games came during their long losing streak to start the year.
The pregame show will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app. Coverage on Sunday will begin at 6 p.m. from Oshawa.
Comments