Five different London Knights goal scorers combined on a 5-1 London victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs at Budweiser Gardens on Friday night.
The victory pushed the Knights’ winning streak to eight games.
London has now won 20 of their past 22 games and remain in first place in the Western Conference.
Sean McGurn tipped Jackson Edward’s point shot past Matteo Drobac at 16:58 to open the scoring.
Jacob Julien showed off his speed in the second period as he took a pass from Ben Bujold, raced into the Bulldogs’ zone and lifted a shot into the net for his second OHL goal and a 2-0 London lead.
Hamilton cut that lead in half just past the midway point of the middle period as Logan Morrison worked a puck in front and Patrick Thomas put in a rebound as he was being knocked down and the Knights carried a 2-1 advantage into period three.
Former Bulldogs Ryan Humphrey and George Diaco combined to put London ahead 3-1 as Diaco scored for the third consecutive game. The Londoner now has five goals in his last seven.
Easton Cowan, Denver Barkey and Ruslan Gazizov worked some pretty passing plays in the first half of the game that didn’t find the back of the net. The trio changed that at 13:13 of the final period as Gazizov scored his 12th of the year to make it 4-1 for the Knights.
Barkey willed the puck into an empty net to complete the scoring with just over two and a half minutes remaining to complete the scoring.
Diaco and Barkey each had a goal and an assist in the game.
Brett Brochu made 23 saves for his 18th win of the year. Brochu is now 15 victories away from the Knights career wins record by a goaltender.
London outshot the Bulldogs 41-24.
Shane Wright back to the OHL
The Ontario Hockey League trade deadlines are days away (Monday, Jan. 9 for overage players and Tuesday, Jan. 10 for all other players) and the biggest name available just re-joined the junior hockey ranks.
Following Canada’s gold medal victory at the 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship the Seattle Kraken assigned Wright to the Kingston Frontenacs. That leaves a very large question that will be answered before Jan.10: Where is Shane Wright headed next?
It has long been expected that if Wright arrived back in the Frontenacs dressing room they would move him to another team. Kingston is one of four OHL clubs bidding for the 2024 Memorial Cup so their eyes are on next year and Wright would bring one of the biggest returns in league history in a trade. Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek has told fans to watch the Ottawa 67’s, the Peterborough Petes, the Barrie Colts and the London Knights.
Marek also indicated that prospects and perhaps three second round picks and three third round picks were the expected ask out of the gate.
Beast against the East
The Knights are through 13 of the 20 games they will play against teams from the East in 2022-23 and so far London’s overall record sits at 10-2-1. The Mississauga Steelheads edged London 5-4 in overtime at Budweiser Gardens and after that the only Eastern teams to find success against the Knights were the North Bay Battalion and the Oshawa Generals.
London has gone 15-6 against teams from the Western Conference.
Up next
London is headed west and then north for the weekend.
The Knights will meet the Saginaw Spirit in mid-Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 7 in a game that will feature the top two teams in the Western Conference.
London swept a home-and-home series with the Spirit in October.
The Knights will then zip up to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., for a 2 p.m. game against the Greyhounds the next day.
Coverage can be heard on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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