Four second-period goals led the London Knights to an 8-1 blowout of the Erie Otters on Friday night at Budweiser Gardens.
The victory extended London’s winning streak to seven games and moved them back to within one point of the Windsor Spitfires for top spot in the Western Conference. The Knights have a game in hand.
Ryan Humphrey was the only London player to record more than two points. The Northville, Mich., native had a goal and two assists.
Zach Bowen stopped 32 of 33 shots in the Knight net for his 13th victory of the season. The Knights rookie has now won his last 12 consecutive starts.
Denver Barkey closed the scoring on Wednesday night with a game-winning goal against Kitchener and then opened it on Friday on a power play. Oliver Bonk did a nice job keeping a puck in and Easton Cowan and Ruslan Gazizov combined to find Barkey at the left side of the Otter net to make it 1-0
Humphrey put London ahead 2-0 as he banged a puck past Nolan Lalonde in tight to the Erie net.
Knights co-captain Sean McGurn stayed hot with his sixth goal and 13th point in his last four games and then Logan Mailloux’s fourth goal in his past two games against the Otters stretched London’s lead even more.
Max McCue celebrated his 20th birthday with a short-handed goal on a two-on-one to put the Knights up 5-0 through two periods. The goal ended the night for Lalonde as he was replaced by Kyle Downey in the Erie net.
Barkey scored his second of the game just 1:45 into the third period and that goal was followed by Ethan MacKinnon’s third and Jacob Julien’s fifth goal of the season to finish the scoring on the London side. Julian has five points in five games.
Malcolm Spence banged in his own rebound for the lone goal by the Otters.
The teams were even in shots with 33 apiece.
London has played five times in the past eight days and they have won all five games. The Knights have outscored their opponents 32-12 over the last week and a day.
Knights goalie Brett Brochu did not dress for a second straight game. He is out day-to-day with a lower body injury.
Mathieu Paris missed the game for London with the flu.
McGurn on pace for 90 points
Six games in nine days is about as jammed as any hockey schedule ever gets. London Knights co-captain Sean McGurn seems to be loving it.
McGurn had 13 points in a four-game span. The Ottawa. Ont., native is on pace to crush his scoring totals from last year when he had 20 goals and 53 assists. McGurn is on pace to break 90 points in 2022-23. The overage forward attended rookie camp with the Toronto Maple Leafs this past fall.
A first and a first
Will Nicholl of the Knights scored his first OHL goal in his first OHL game on Feb. 8 against the Kitchener Rangers. It wasn’t the first time this year the third-round pick in 2022 had accomplished that. Nicholl scored in his first game of the season with the GOJHL’s St. Thomas Stars. In fact, Nicholl had two goals that night in a 6-1 win over the Sarnia Legionnaires.
Landon Sim is the most recent London player to have done it. Sim scored the first goal of the 2021-22 season for the Knights. Max Domi and Bo Horvat played in their first OHL games together in 2011 and each of them hit the scoresheet. Domi actually scored three times in what was an 8-0 victory over the Saginaw Spirit.
Up next
The Knights will complete their six game in nine day stretch on Saturday, Feb. 11 in Guelph, Ont., against the Storm.
London and Guelph have played three times this season. All three took place at Budweiser Gardens.
The Knights won two of them by scores of 6-2 and 3-2 in overtime on a goal by George Diaco.
The Storm won the most recent meeting on Jan. 13 by a score of 6-3.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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