Max McCue won a faceoff deep in the London Knights zone in overtime and then went down the ice and fed a pass across the slot to Gerard Keane at the other end of the ice for the game winner in a 5-4 victory over Windsor on Friday night.
Keane brought 8,008 fans at Budweiser Gardens out of their seats with a blast of a one-timer that beat former teammate Matt Onuska in the Spitfires net.
It was the kind of game that creates fans of junior hockey.
The Knights built a 3-0 lead through 40 minutes on goals by Denver Barkey, Sean McGurn and Isaiah George and then the third period turned everything inside out and upside down.
Like swarms of bees through a windstorm, the two clubs buzzed around the ice over the final 20 minutes and combined for five goals.
Spitfires forwards Ryan Abraham, Josh Currie and Oliver Peer scored three times over a span of just two minutes and 21 seconds to erase the London lead completely by the 7:47 mark.
The Knights pushed back in front at 10:41 as Tonio Stranges wristed in his 20th of the year through a crowd to give the Knights a short-lived 4-3 edge.
The Stranges goal had not been announced inside the arena before Jacob Maillet popped in the fourth Windsor goal to tie things 4-4. The spread between the two was 55 seconds.
The scoreboard sat still from then until overtime, even through a late London power play, and that set the stage for McCue’s faceoff win and Keane’s winner.
That goal wasn’t the only thing to make the crowd stand up. Connor Federkow laid two enormous body checks during the game and both were clean hits. Federkow caught both Pasquale Zito and then Ryan Abraham chest to chest coming across the London blue line.
Onuska made 37 saves against his former mates. Brett Brochu stopped 29 shots for his 29th win of the year for the Knights.
Happy Anniversary Corey Perry
March 4, 2005 saw Corey Perry record eight points in a single game for the Knights as they blew out the Saginaw Spirit 12-0 in London, Ont.
Perry scored once and assisted on seven others. He had four assists in the first period, a goal and two assists in the second period and was in on the final goal of the game with 1:42 remaining. Dylan Hunter had a goal and four assists in the game and defenceman
Bryan Rodney recorded a hat trick. Eight points is still the Knights single-game record. Perry shares it with Denis Maruk, Wayne Thompson, Dave Simpson and Rob Schremp. Seven assists is also a single-game London record.
The only other player to accomplish that feat for the Knights was Tom Rowe in 1975.
Moskal making noise as a rookie
Billy Moskal’s Ontario Hockey League career came to an abrupt end when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Sudbury, Ont., native was 19 and lost the chance to show his stuff as an overage player when the 2020-21 OHL season was cancelled.
Moskal started his OUA career this past September at the University of Toronto. Again, he got caught up in a COVID-19 shutdown that lasted through all of December and well into February, but since his return to the ice, Moskal has been racking up points as a rookie.
He returned with a four-point game against the Lakehead Thunderwolves and has averaged better than a point per game over his past nine games.
Throwback jersey auction
London wore jerseys that took them back to the first Knights look the franchise had from 1968-1986. London earned a 4-3 shootout victory over the Guelph Storm in them and now all of those game-worn jerseys are being auctioned off.
The auction is live and will last until March 9 at 7 p.m. You can place bids here.
Up next
Another game between London and Windsor takes place on Sunday, March 6 at 4 p.m. at the WFCU Centre in Windsor. The game will complete the regular season series between the two clubs.
London has the edge in the eight matchups the Knights and Spitfires have on the schedule, having won five of the seven.
Coverage will start at 3:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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