Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Ty Voit’s scored a hat trick in Sarnia, Ont., on Wednesday as the Sting defeated the London Knights 8-3.
Voit showed off his ability to shoot the puck scoring his 16th, 17th and 18th goals of the season.
The Knights were playing their first game without Brett Brochu anywhere near the bench since he was away with Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Brochu left the game on March 8 in Kitchener with a lower body injury but is listed as out day-to-day as opposed to to week-to-week or indefinitely, so the prognosis is much better than it first appeared.
Voit’s first of the game came early as he found a lane down the middle of the ice in the London zone and rifled a shot off the post and in just one minute and 35 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Theo Hill and Ryder McIntyre added two more for Sarnia by the 7:47 mark of the opening period and the Sting were off and running.
A five-some of Luke Evangelista, Max McCue, Sean McGurn, Isaiah George and Gerard Keane got the Knights on the scoreboard with a shift that saw them work the puck around and around the Sarnia zone until McGurn found Evangelista at the side of the Sting net for his 44th goal of the year in his 46th game.
Voit scored both goals of the second period as he sent a seeing-eye shot to the back of the London net on a power play and then completed his hat trick on another power play less than four minutes later.
Ruslan Gazizov of the Knights scored his seventh of the season on an individual effort to cut into the Sarnia lead, but 13 seconds after that, Angus MacDonnell got the goal back for the Sting and it was 6-2.
London forward Landon Sim set up Liam Gilmartin short-handed at 11:13 of the third period to tighten the gap to 6-3. Landon’s dad Jon was a star for the Sting in the mid-90s. He put up back-to-back 50-goal seasons.
The last eight minutes of the game slowed to a crawl with extracurriculars after the whistle and a parade to the penalty box setting up what should be a spirited rematch on Sunday, Mar. 13 back in Sarnia, Ont.
Hill and Max Namestnikov added late power play goals on a 5-on-3 that continued throughout the last minutes of the game.
The Sting outshot the Knights 29-28.
Owen Flores started the game for London and was replaced in net following the fifth Sting goal by Owen Willmore who has been playing this season with the St. Thomas Stars of the GOJHL. Willmore was a 14th round pick of the Knights in 2020.
San Jose Sharks prospect Ben Gaudreau picked up the win in goal for Sarnia.
The Sting have now won the last five meetings between the teams after London won the first two.
The teams meet next on Sunday, March 13 back in Sarnia, Ont., at 2 p.m.
Shades of Sam Gagner
There have been some big-time individual point performances in recent games in the National Hockey League.
On March 8, former Knight Patrick Kane had a goal and five assists in an 8-3 win by Kane’s Chicago Blackhawks. Arizona Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz recorded seven points in a game against Ottawa on March 5.
Schmaltz was the first NHL player to put up a number like that since another former Knight went one better when Sam Gagner had eight points for the Edmonton Oilers against Chicago on Feb. 2, 2012. Gagner scored four goals and added four assists.
Schmaltz had two goals and five assists for Arizona. Schmaltz followed that up with a four-point night on March 8 in a 9-2 drubbing of the Detroit Red Wings. Gagner spent one season with the Knights when he teamed with Kane in 2006-07 to take London through a high-flying regular season and all the way to the Western Conference final against the eventual OHL Champion Plymouth Whalers.
The Oilers selected Gagner sixth overall in the NHL Entry Draft at the end of that season and he started his NHL career at age 18. Gagner is currently playing in his 15th NHL season and his second year with Detroit.
OHL receives money from province for scholarships
The Ontario Hockey League is going to receive $3 million from the provincial government to help Ontario-based teams meet their scholarship requirements.
An OHL player is entitled to a year of tuition and books for each year that they play in the league. The money is part of a $30-million package that is designed to help sports organizations in the province who were hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There will be $20 million given to ministry-recognized Provincial Sport Organizations along with Multi-Sport Organizations and another $7 million that will got to community-based sport and recreation organizations given through the Ontario Sport Network.
Up next
London will continue their run of six games in nine days on Friday, March 11 when they host the Flint Firebirds for the second time this season. The Knights defeated Flint 6-1 at Budweiser Gardens on Jan. 7.
The teams have met just one other time back in October when the Firebirds became the first team to beat London in 2021-22.
That ended a nine-game winning streak by the Knights to begin the year.
Coverage will begin at 7 pm on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 519-681-0800, at Gate 1 or the London Knights Armouries at Budweiser Gardens or at www.londonknights.com.
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