The London Knights wrapped up a 2-2 record in the pre-season with a 7-2 loss to the Erie Otters in Clinton on Saturday night.
The game put an exclamation point on a very successful Hockey Day in Huron County in support of the Tanner Steffler Foundation as more than 1,000 fans packed into the Central Huron Community Centre.
The Otters jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead, striking just 39 seconds into the game on a goal by Brendan Sellan. Brendan Hoffman and Emmett Sproule also scored first-period goals.
Billy Moskal put the Knights on the scoreboard just 33 seconds after the third Erie goal as he swung around from behind the Otters’ net and put a puck past Erie goalie Daniel Murphy.
Moskal cut the Otter lead to one right off the bat in the second period as his centring pass hit an Erie stick and deflected into the net as London put on a push to come back against Erie for the third time in two nights.
Otters’ defenceman Luke Beamish put a wrinkle in that plan with a seeing-eye wrist shot from the right point of the London zone to give Erie a 4-2 advantage.
Daniel D’Amato, Elias Cohen and Danial Singer scored third-period goals for the Otters. Singer’s came on a late power play. Erie went 2-for-8 with the man advantage. London went 0-2 on two abbreviated power plays.
The Otters outshot the Knights 41-22.
Liam Foudy in attendance
After suffering an injury at Columbus Blue Jackets training camp, Liam Foudy was in Clinton watching his teammates take on the Otters. The Knights still have seven players at NHL camps: Alec Regula (Detroit), Hunter Skinner (Rangers), Connor McMichael (Washington), Paul Cotter (Vegas), Jordan Kooy (Vegas), Jonathan Gruden (Ottawa) and Matvey Guskov (Minnesota).
Helping through Huron County Hockey Day
Tanner Steffler lost his battle with substance abuse disorder at the age of 19. He was a musician, an academic and a guy known for having a great sense of humour. His family has been doing what they can to help create more available resources in Huron County for anyone dealing with mental health issues and addiction. They created the Tanner Steffler Foundation in August of 2017 and proceeds from the game between London and Erie along with games played all day at the Clinton Community Centre benefitted the foundation.
Goalies going places
The Flint Firebirds acquired Anthony Popovich from the Guelph Storm on September 3 in exchange for a 3rd round pick in 2020 and a 5th round pick in 2020. Popovich helped the Storm to the 2019 J. Ross Robertson Cup and a berth in the 2019 Memorial Cup. He joins a team looking to continue the rise they started under head coach Eric Wellwood over the second half of last season following an 0-17-1 start.
The Sudbury Wolves picked up goaltender Christian Purboo from the North Bay Battalion for a 3rd rounder, two 4th rounders, and a conditional 5th. The trade means that the Battalion will begin this season without either of the goalies that they ended with in 2018-19. Christian Propp was traded to Sault Ste. Marie in June. North Bay will keep the name Christian in net. They will start this season with 18-year old rookie Christian Cicigoi and 17-year old Joe Vrbetic.
Up next
The regular season. The Knights will open 2019-20 at Budweiser Gardens on September 20 against the Peterborough Petes at 7:30 p.m. Peterborough is expected to be one of the top teams in the East this season. They acquired overage defenceman Jacob Paquette from the Niagara Ice Dogs on September 12 to bolster an already solid blue line. Paquette was voted best defensive defenceman in the Eastern Conference coaches poll last year.
Coverage on 980 CFPL will begin at 6:30, live from Shoeless Joe’s on King Street.
Play-by-play will begin just after 7:30 with Mike Stubbs and Jim Van Horne.
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