Easton Cowan scored twice and Ryan Winterton had a goal and two assists as the London Knights defeated the Kitchener Rangers on Tuesday night at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
The win improved London’s road record to an Ontario Hockey League best 14-3.
The game saw the Knights power play strike twice and saw rookie goaltender Zach Bowen earn his eighth consecutive victory. Bowen is now 9-1 on the year.
Easton Cowan got the scoring started as he brought the puck up the ice two-on-two and then watched as a Ranger defender caught an edge and fell. Suddenly that two-on-two became a two-on-one. Cowan carried into the Kitchener end, used Jacob Julien as a decoy and snapped home his tenth goal of the season to begin the scoring. The goal gave Cowan 25 points on the season which tied him with Joey Willis of the Saginaw Spirit for fifth in rookie scoring.
The Knights popped in a power play goal just over five minutes later at 14:43 as veteran Ryan Humphrey banged in a rebound to the left of the Ranger net after a shot by Ryan Winterton was stopped by Dorchester, Ont., native Marcus Vandenberg and London took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. The Knights held the Rangers to only four shots in the opening 20 minutes.
London cashed in quickly to begin the third period as they killed the remainder of a penalty and then took advantage of a Kitchener turnover inside the Knights blue line that created a three-on-one. Winterton faked a pass to George Diaco and dropped the puck to Logan Mailloux who buried a wrist shot for a 3-0 London lead.
Later in the second period Diaco skated a puck across the high slot and ripped in his 19th of the season to make it 4-0 for London.
Matthew Sop ended Zach Bowen’s shutout streak a 98 minutes and 38 seconds with a goal at 11:51 but Winterton connected on a feed from Mailloux on a man advantage to restore a four-goal lead for the Knights moving into the final period.
Landon Sim scored his 10th of the year to stretch London’s lead to 6-1.
Kitchener battled back with a short-handed goal from Reid Valade that came on a penalty shot and then a power play goal by Francesco Pinelli at 10:48 of the third period to get the Rangers to within three.
The Knights killed off a full two-minute 5-on-3 Kitchener man advantage
Cowan came up with a huge shot block on that power play and then ended the scoring into an empty net a couple of minutes later.
The victory moved London to within one point of the Windsor Spitfires for first place in the Western Conference. Both teams have played 39 games this season. It also ended a string of three straight losses by the Knights.
London defenceman Ethan MacKinnon missed his 17th consecutive game with an upper body injury. Connor Federkow also missed the game with an injury and Brett Brochu was given the night off in the London crease. Owen Willmore, an 14th round pick of the Knights in 2020 backed up Bowen. Willmore has split this year between the St. Thomas Stars and the Stratford Warriors.
Welcome to the NHL
Jonathan Gruden spent one year with the London Knights in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season. Gruden was a fourth-round pick of the Ottawa Senators at the time but was moved to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization in the trade that sent current Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Matt Murray to the Senators.
Gruden spent two and a half seasons with the American Hockey League’s Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and on Monday Jan. 16 the Rochester, Mich., native got the call to the National Hockey League. Gruden made his NHL debut playing 7:02 in a 4-3 Penguins win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Gruden’s father, John, spent 92 games as a player in the NHL before becoming a coach. He is currently an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins.
Piccinich in position to win again
Former London Knight J.J. Piccinich has himself a collection of championships. The Paramus, N.J., native won a Hockey East title with Boston University in 2015, the year before he joined the Knights.
In his first season in London, Ont., Piccinich won an OHL championship and a Memorial Cup with the Knights. Following his OHL career Piccinich won a Kelly Cup with the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL in 2019 and then led the Belfast Giants in scoring and captured a British crown last season.
Take away 2020 because of COVID-19 and Piccinich has held a trophy over his head four times in the past seven seasons. This year Piccinich is in Norway with Sjternen Hockey and he and teammates Alex Dostie and Austin Cangelosi are 1-2-3 in league scoring and bidding to win it all in the Fjordkraft-ligaen.
Up next
London will play two home games in three days on Friday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. against the Owen Sound Attack and Sunday, Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. against the Kitchener Rangers.
The Knights are 2-2 against the Attack this season. Owen Sound won the first two games and London has won the last two.
The Knights and Rangers will be meeting for the third time this year.
Both games can be heard on 980 CFPL at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
Comments