On Sept. 10 a young Sarnia roster eeked out a 3-2 victory in London, Ont. The very next day the London Knights put a young roster on the ice and defeated the Sting 3-2.
Easton Cowan got the scoring going for the Knights when he stepped out of the penalty box in the first period and joined an odd-man rush with Brody Crane and Ryan Humphrey.
Crane got the puck to Humphrey. He feathered a beautiful pass to Cowan who beat veteran Sting goalie Ben Gaudreau to make it 1-0 at the 1:20 mark.
London took advantage of a power play later in the second period when Sam O’Reilly deflected an Oliver Bonk point shot past Gaudreau for a 2-0 London lead after 40 minutes.
The Knights went ahead 3-0 right before the mid-way mark of the third period with another goal on a power play.
After a scramble in front created by a wrap-around chance by Ryan Humphrey, the puck slid all alone to the side of the net and Ruslan Gazizov raced in from the left point to knock it in.
After Cowan raced past everyone on the Sting short-handed and got a chance that was stopped by Ben Gaudreau, Sarnia came right down the ice and cashed in on the man advantage. Ryan Brown buried a rebound at 11:19 to get the Sing on the board.
With 5:55 to go Dennis Lominac scored on a rebound that snuck underneath London goalie Owen Willmore and the gap was tightened to a single goal with the Knights in front 3-2.
London held on through a late Sarnia power play and a flurry at the end with an empty net and got their first victory for the pre-season.
The Knights outshot the Sting 33-30
Fagan, Woolley, Arrowsmith, Van Gorp and Van Bommell make debuts
After strong training camps all four Knights rookies got a chance to experience game action in Sarnia, Ont., on Sunday. Fagan was a 3rd round pick of the Knights in 2023. He spent last year with the Don Mills Flyers and was the team’s top scoring defenceman. Jared Wolley was a 6th round selection in 2022 and was also the top scoring defenceman on his club last year as a member of the Quinte Red Devils U18 AAA team. Arrowsmith was also drafted in the 3rd round in 2023 and led the Cleveland Barons U15 team in points with 90 in 61 games.
Evan Van Gorp made the London roster with an excellent showing in training camp that saw him score the overtime winner in the Knights’ Green and Gold game. He spent last season with the Elgin-Middlesex Canucks U18 AAA team.
Rene Van Bommell was selected in the 11th round of the 2022 OHL Priority Selection and played with Van Gorp in 2022-23 where he led the team in scoring with 26 goals and 52 points in 40 games.
Broadhurst off to a hot start
Former London forward Alex Broadhurst is playing in the KHL in 2023-24 and had a big first three games with Amur Khabarovsk with two goals and a pair of assists for four points. Broadhurst was a draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks and played two seasons for their American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford, Ill., before moving to the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.
Broadhurst played two games for the Blue Jackets in 2017-18. He moved to Finland in 2020-21 and then to the KHL a year ago. Broadhurst played for the Knights in 2012-13 and will forever be remembered for creating the play that allowed Bo Horvat to score his OHL championship-winning goal with 0.1 seconds left in Game 7 of the OHL Final against the Barrie Colts.
Up next
The Knights will play their final two pre-season games on Sept. 14 and 15 against the Erie Otters.
On Sept. 21 the two clubs will meet at the Joe Thornton Community Centre in St. Thomas, Ont., at 7 p.m. They will play a second game against each other the next night at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ont., also at 7 p.m. Coverage will begin at 6:30 for both games at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
The Knights and Sting will meet next on Oct. 14 in the regular season.
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