Owen Bennett of the Guelph Storm made 27 saves for his second career shutout in the Ontario Hockey League as the Storm blanked the London Knights 4-0 at Budweiser Gardens on Saturday afternoon.
Bennett made his biggest save on a tic-tac-toe play in the third period that went from Cody Morgan to Ruslan Gazizov to Tonio Stranges. He kept London shooters frustrated and allowed the Storm to climb to within one point of the Knights in the overall standings.
Matt Onuska was a story for the Knights for the second game in a row. He stopped 22 of 22 shots on Friday night against Windsor and made 35 saves against Guelph.
Daniil Chayka had the only goal of the opening period. It came off a faceoff in the London zone. Chayka got the puck at the left point and zipped a wrist shot through some traffic past Matt Onuska at the 6:04 mark for a 1-0 Storm lead.
Valentin Zhugin put Guelph ahead 2-0 as he cut across the slot and slid a puck into the London net for his sixth goal of the season, with just over five minutes remaining in the second period.
Sasha Pastujov turned a two-goal lead into a three-goal lead for the Storm with 1.1 seconds remaining in the second period, as he put in his 20th goal of the season after a Matt Onuska save. That tied the Anaheim Ducks draft pick with Knights’ captain Luke Evangelista for 2nd place in the OHL in goals. Tye Kartye of the Soo Greyhounds leads with 21 goals.
The only goal of the final period came on a power play as Guelph forward Marko Sikic stuffed in a rebound to make it 4-0 with 3:16 remaining in the game.
The Storm outshot the Knights 39-27.
Mathieu Paris made his debut in a London uniform. He got the call early in the morning on Saturday after helping the St. Thomas Stars to a win on Friday night. Paris is from Ottawa, Ont., and his parents were able to make the drive to see him play.
The Knights were without a handful of regulars for the second game in a row. Ethan MacKinnon (upper body), Abakar Kazbekov (upper body), Connor Federkow (non-COViD related illness), Bryce Montgomery (suspension) and Landon Sim (suspension) were unavailable. Montgomery and Sim were given automatic suspensions for being involved in second fights in a game stoppage on December 7. Both will be eligible to return to the lineup when London hosts Owen Sound on December 17.
Knights forward Liam Gilmartin spent his second consecutive game on the blue line.
The 678 day wait
It took a pandemic, mononucleosis and some brilliance from Brett Brochu for London goaltender Matt Onuska to go 678 days between regular-season starts.
Onuska was in goal for a 5-2 Knights victory on Feb. 1, 2020 in Sarnia and didn’t stand in the crease in a game that counted in the standings until December 10, 2021.
Onuska had recently been medically cleared to play again after being diagnosed with mono in October and turned aside every single shot he faced against the Windsor Spitfires, going a perfect 22 for 22.
The Waterloo, Ont. native appeared in three pre-season games in 2021. He was originally drafted by Kingston in 2018, and helped the Waterloo Siskinds to win the Sutherland Cup as a 16-year old.
Former overagers off to solid USports starts
Knights fans didn’t get a chance to say a proper goodbye to the three over-age players on the London roster in 2019-20 but all three have gone on to start their USports careers this year.
Billy Moskal has a quick two goals and five points in six games. Nathan Dunkley is currently fifth in team scoring with the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Halifax, N.S., and goalie Dylan Myskiw is splitting duties with former London National David Ovsjannikov.
All three started University last year but with no games to play, the trio became part of the double cohort rookie class in USports in 2021-22.
Up next
The Knights will play their final home game before the holidays on Friday, December 17 against the Owen Sound Attack at 7:30 at Budweiser Gardens. The game will be the seventh between the two teams this year. London has been perfect through the first six.
The Knights have outscored the Attack 20-12 in those games but five of the six have been decided by one goal, one has gone to overtime and two have ended up in shootouts.
The game will have volunteers on hand collecting donations for the Business Cares Food Drive as part of “Be a fan, bring a can.”
Coverage gets going at 7:00 on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.