A three-goal second period helped push the Barrie Colts to a 5-2 victory over the London Knights on Thursday night at Sadlon Arena in Barrie, Ont.
The Colts jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period on goals by Declan McDonnell and Beau Jelsma. McDonnell’s goal came seconds after a Barrie power play ended and Jelsma’s came smack in the middle of another Colts man advantage.
In between, a Barrie goal was negated after a review and a ruling that Brett Brochu had the puck covered in the London crease before the whistle went and it was pushed into the Knight net.
The Knights got on the scoreboard at the 3:34 mark of the second period when Ryan Humphrey and Denver Barkey got to a puck deep in the Colts zone. Humphrey kicked the puck to Barkey and Barkey found Mailloux coming in from the right point and Mailloux buried his 23rd goal of the season to get London to within one.
Barrie scored three straight as Jacob Frasca cashed in at 5:35 of the second period and then Ethan Cardwell knocked home a bouncing puck on a power play. Brochu had made two saves and another shot had gone off the post before Cardwell got it across the goal line.
Zach Bowen replaced Brochu in the Knight net as London head coach Dale Hunter went looking for a shift in the game.
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Cole Beaudoin kept the momentum leaning Barrie’s way as he backhanded a shot under the crossbar to push the Colts lead to 5-1 just past the midway mark of the game.
Barkey scored the only goal of the third period short-handed to complete the scoring.
Evan Vierling and Brandt Clarke of Barrie kept their point streaks alive. Clarke had an assist to push his streak to 11 games. Vierling had a pair of assists for the Colts. His point streak is now at 10 games. Vierling has 24 points over that span.
The Knights remain in first place in the Western Conference, two points ahead of the Windsor Spitfires. Windsor did not play on Thursday and will visit the Guelph Storm on Friday. Both London and the Spitfires have eight games remaining in the regular season.
The NHL wait was shorter for Luke Evangelista
Former Knights captain Luke Evangelista famously went goalless as a rookie in the Ontario Hockey League and then led the OHL in scoring in his final season.
Evangelista took just three games to get his first National Hockey League goal with the Nashville Predators and then just to get his second. The night was reminiscent of Evangelista’s goal breakthrough in major junior when he scored his first goal on and then ended up with a hat trick in that game. He now has two goals and and assist in four games with the Predators.
Next series set for O’Reilly and the Nationals
The St. Marys Lincolns eliminated the Strathroy Rockets from the GOJHL playoffs on Thursday night with a 5-2 win. That means the Lincolns and former London Knight Jacob Chantler are set to face the London Nationals and current Knights prospect, Sam O’Reilly in round two.
O’Reilly and the Nationals swept the St. Thomas Stars in their opening round series. O’Reilly was London’s second-rounder from 2022 and leads the Nats in playoff scoring with three goals and four assists for seven points in four games.
Next up
The Knights make a trip to one of Dale Hunter’s former junior homes on Friday, March 9 at 7:00 p.m.. Hunter’s number 15 from his time with the Wolves hangs in the rafters in Sudbury, Ont.
The Wolves of 2022-23 have been lighting it up of late. Sudbury has won six of their past seven games and they have scored 19 goals in their past three games.
London edged the Wolves 5-4 at Budweiser Gardens in late October. Ethan MacKinnon’s first goal of the season stood up as the game winner.
Coverage of Friday’s game will start at 6:30 p.m.
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