Timely scoring and fierce penalty killing fueled the London Knights to their first victory of the season as they defeated the Bulldogs 4-2 on Sunday afternoon in Hamilton, Ont.
The Knights killed off six Hamilton chances on the man advantage that included a full two-minute 5-on-3 power play near the end of the second period and another odd-man opportunity that saw the Bulldogs hold the puck in the London zone for a full two-and-a-half minutes.
Sam Dickinson got the scoring started with the second of the season with a hard wrist shot from the right point at 11:02 of the opening period. The goal came 27 seconds into a London power play.
Sean McGurn scored his second of the year just over six minutes later as a puck came free in the slot and McGurn got to it and beat Matteo Drobac in the Hamilton net to make it 2-0.
Hamilton appeared to score inside the first two minutes of the game but big Noah Van Vliet bowled over London goalie Brett Brochu on the play and the goal was reviewed, disallowed, challenged and then disallowed a second time.
The teams exchanged early second-period goals when Brody Crane made a gorgeous drop pass to Ryan Del Monte and then Florian Xhekaj followed that up with a goal for the Bulldogs exactly 60 seconds later. The score then sat 3-1, giving the Knights the lead going into the third period for the first time in 2022-23.
Hamilton tightened the gap to a goal when Cole Brown batted a deflected puck into the Knight net at the 5:09 mark.
The Knights held the Bulldogs from there and Easton Cowan got a puck to Denver Barkey for an empty-netter to seal the game with less than a minute remaining.
London outshot Hamilton 39-22.
On to the NHL
There were 173 former Ontario Hockey League players on National Hockey League rosters as the 2022-23 season began. If you take into account drafting signing or acquiring players during their time in the OHL (accounting for their development in some way), the London Knights are once again at the top of the list on a per team basis.
Top 5
Knights – 31
Greyhounds – 19
Spitfires – 18
Colts – 16
Otters – 14
The league average is 11.2.
Area players in the OHL
Along with the 31 former Knights on opening night NHL rosters, there are 13 London and area players who started the year in the National Hockey League.
Londoners Josh Brown, Colton White, Jeff Carter, Drew Doughty, Logan Couture, Dylan DeMelo and Nick Suzuki are joined by Lawson Crouse (Mt. Brydges), Boone Jenner (Mossley), Jacob Middleton (Stratford), Travis Konecny (Clachan), Jared McCann (Seaforth) and Jake Muzzin (Woodstock).
Next up
The London Knights head for Owen Sound, Ont., on Wednesday, Oct. 19 to meet the Attack for the second time this season. London won nine straight against Owen Sound a season ago before the Attack pulled out a 5-4 win in the final meeting of the season between the two teams.
The Attack grabbed a win at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ont., on opening night when Ingersoll’s Gavin Bryant scored twice in a 5-3 Owen Sound victory.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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