With two quick goals to start the second period and three more goals from Luke Evangelista, the London Knights are 8-0.
Evangelista’s third of the game went into an empty net with 1:21 to go as London extended their season-opening winning streak with a 5-2 win over Sarnia at Budweiser Gardens.
The victory gave Dale Hunter his 825th victory behind the Knights bench.
Evangelista now has six goals in his past three games. He has at least one point in every game he has played in the regular season and he leads London in scoring with 10 goals and 15 points.
Ryan Mast opened the scoring as he connected on a one-timer at 11:55 of the first period that found the back of the Knight net.
Evangelista tied the game with his eighth goal of the year on a short-handed breakaway that saw him channel a young Peter Forsberg as he slipped the puck past Sting goaltender Ben Gaudreau.
Very early in the second period, Cody Morgan took a feed from Tonio Stranges after the Dallas Stars prospect forced a turnover on the ride side of the Sarnia zone and wired a shot into the top corner over the glove of Gaudreau to give London a 2-1 advantage.
Just one minute and seven seconds later, Ruslan Gazizov recorded his first OHL point in his first game with the Knights as he banked a puck off the skate of Landon Sim and into the net and London was ahead by two very early in the second period.
Justin O’Donnell scored a highlight reel goal later in the second as he skated into the Knights zone and chipped the puck over the stick of a defender, picked it up again and ripped a shot past Knights goalie Brett Brochu to cut the London lead to 3-2 heading into the final 20 minutes.
Evangelista gave London some breathing room at 8:07 of the third period as he scored unassisted after a turnover in Sarnia territory and then finished the scoring into the empty net.
Sean McGurn had two assists in the game for the Knights to give him 11 points in eight games and Tonio Stranges buzzed around the Sting net during the game and while Gaudreau kept him from scoring, Stranges had an assist and was named the game’s third star.
London outshot the Sting 36-27 and went perfect on the penalty kills as they negated all four Sarnia chances.
The magic of the translator app
London Knights associate general manager Rob Simpson was there to welcome the newest Knight, Ruslan Gazizov, as the Russian forward landed at Pearson International Airport on Oct. 26.
The pair had a two-hour drive back to Toronto and with Simpson not overly fluent in Russian and Gazizov still learning English, you would think that the conversation might be a little on the quiet side. Only it wasn’t.
“It actually went pretty well,” admitted Simpson. “And whenever either of us got stuck (Ruslan) had a translator app open and it helped fill in the gaps.”
Gazizov made his London debut against the Sting on Oct. 30.
Doughty out up to eight weeks
Londoner Drew Doughty’s Jr. Knights tournament wrapped up in London, Ont., on Oct. 17. Just five days after that, Doughty suffered the most significant injury of his National Hockey leg career after a collision with Jani Hakenpaa of the Dallas stars that left the Los Angeles Kings star with a serious knee contusion.
Hakenpaa received a five-minute major and a game misconduct. Doughty had started the year with a goal and six assists in just four games. He is expected to miss at least six weeks and could be out of action with the Kings for as long as eight weeks.
Up next
For the second week in a row, the Knights will not play a Saturday or Sunday game and the next name on the schedule might look like a typo, only it isn’t.
London will play the Owen Sound Attack for the fifth time in nine games on Friday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 pm at Budweiser Gardens. The Knights have won every game they have played against Owen Sound this year. Three have been decided by a single goal and the most recent saw London knock off the Attack 4-1 in Owen Sound on Oct. 27.
The pregame show will begin at 7 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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