Sports

London Knights close out the calendar year with a 5-3 win over the Flint Firebirds

By Mike Stubbs 980 CFPL Posted December 31, 2023 7:49 pm

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Jacob Julien scored once and assisted on three other goals as the London Knights stretched their winning streak to six games with a 5-3 victory over the Flint Firebirds on New Year’s Eve.

Ruslan Gazizov had a goal and two assists and now has at least one point in eight games.

London was missing Easton Cowan, Oliver Bonk and Kasper Halttunen, who are away at the World Junior Hockey Championship.

They were also without veterans Max McCue, Alec Leonard, Sawyer Boulton and Ethan MacKinnon due to suspensions and injury.

Still, with call-ups and players playing up in the lineup, the Knights found a way to fight back from a two-goal deficit and another one-goal deficit to win again.

Coulson Pitre set up Ilderton’s Matt Jenken to begin the scoring at 16:21 of the first period.

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The Jenken brothers were facing each other for the first time in their Ontario Hockey League careers. The Knights’ Noah Jenken was in the London lineup for the fifth time this season.

Their parents, Dan and Jannine  were both in the sellout crowd at Budweiser Gardens. Dan wore a Knights jersey. Jannine wore a Firebirds jersey.

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Pitre put Flint ahead 2-0 on a short-handed breakaway with less than a minute remaining in the opening frame. Michael Simpson made an initial save on Pitre, but the Ducks prospect found the puck and put home his own rebound with 32.2 seconds remaining.

Undeterred, Denver Barkey got to the puck after the faceoff back at centre ice, cut to the Firebirds net and scored his 19th goal of the season with only 7.7 seconds left to get London on the scoreboard. That goal extended the Knights power play streak to 14 games with at least one goal on the man advantage.

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After having a goal called back and after hitting two goal posts, London tied the game on another power play goal by Julien at 7:21 of the second period — only to have the Firebirds jump back in front with a goal of their own on the man advantage less than three minutes later.

Again the Knights evened the score. Sam Dickinson, who had been responsible for the two hit goal posts, put a low shot between those posts with 5:01 remaining in the second period to make it 3-3. Then Ruslan Gazizov snapped home his 15th goal of the year right off a faceoff win by Julien to give London their first lead heading into the final 20 minutes.

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Sam O’Reilly scored the only goal of the third period off a feed from Jackson Edward. O’Reilly continues to lead all OHL rookies in scoring and is now on an eight-game point streak.

The Knights outshot Flint 29-23.

London finished the calendar year of 2023 with a record of 59-31-1-1.

Max McCue suspended

The OHL’s hottest scorer will miss the next three games due to a suspension for Abuse of an Official on Dec. 29. Max McCue of the London Knights has at least one goal in nine consecutive games. Late in the game between London and Sarnia Sting, goaltender Karsen Chartier came out of his net to play a puck and then stayed out of his net and applied a check on Landon Sim of the Knights. Chartier received a penalty for interference on the play. That incident led to a skirmish in which McCue and others were restrained by officials. It was ruled that McCue’s actions were enough to warrant an Abuse of an Official offence, He will be able ro return to the London lineup on Jan. 6, when the Knights visit Mississauga. McCue’s goal-scoring streak will not be affected by the suspension. It is the second-longest streak by a London player since 1997-98, tying Jared Knight’s run in 2009-10 and trailing only Patrick Kane’s 13-game streak from 2006-07. Kane had 25 goals during that stretch.

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Quarter-final matchups set at World Juniors

Easton Cowan of the Knights scored a goal and London defenceman Oliver Bonk recorded an assist in Canada’s 6-3 victory over Germany to finish the preliminary round at the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship.

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Canada will face Czechia at 8:30 a.m., on Tuesday, Jan. 2 in a quarter-final matchup.

Knights forward Kasper Halttunen had a goal and two assists in a 5-4 shootout win over Sweden to finish their group stage schedule. Finland will take on Slovakia in the quarter-finals at 6 a.m., on Jan 2.

Knights import draft pick Daniil Ustinkov is playing for Switzerland. They will face Sweden in the quarter-finals. Team USA will meet Latvia.

Up next

The London Knights will host the Erie Otters at Budweiser Gardens on Wednesday, Jan. 3.

London has only lost 11 games this season but two of those have been to Erie.

Anaheim Ducks prospect Carey Terrance scored twice in each of those games for the Otters. He will not be playing in the third meeting between the clubs because he is with Team USA at the World Junior Hockey Championship.

Erie has won five of their past seven games and sit seventh in the Western Conference standings.
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.