|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Knight Watch: London swept three last week — but remain in fifth in Western Conference; Jaxon Cover, Sebastian Gatto continue strong play; Knights get Guelph at home Friday, head to Windsor Sunday.
The London Knights won all three of their games last week as they chase home ice advantage in the playoffs.
In a pair of victories over Erie, and a midweek win over Guelph, London outscored the opposition 18-5. The team’s lopsided 10-2 win over the Otters last Friday was the second time in just over a month they’ve scored double digit goals in a game (the other was a 10-2 win over Peterborough in January).
The Soo Greyhounds beat Windsor in overtime on Thursday night, which opened up a three-point lead over the Knights for fourth spot in the Western Conference. Both teams have five games remaining. The Knights and Greyhounds will meet in the first round, that much is certain, but home ice has yet to be decided with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
That’s a decent amount of ground to make up in five games — especially since three of London’s remaining contests are against teams higher than them in the standings (two vs. Windsor and one against Flint). London has won seven of its last 10 games, with all three of those losses coming against teams ahead of them in the standings.
Jaxon Cover is nearing 19 goals on his rookie campaign. He currently sits fourth in OHL scoring among first-year players. Cover says it’s important that the Knights finish the regular season strong so they can carry that momentum into the postseason.
“We want to make sure we have great team chemistry going into playoffs. We want to be as organized as we can and hopefully start the playoffs strong,” the forward told Gameday London. “We’ve been on a nice recent run of games, and hopefully we can carry that into this weekend.”
Sebastian Gatto has started the last five games for London, the longest stretch of the season for the 19-year-old netminder. He’s made 106 saves overall and allowed two goals or fewer in each of those five contests. Knights assistant coach Rick Steadman says that despite being in his first year in the league, Gatto’s play has given the players in front of him a lot of confidence.
“It’s a tough league for goalies to come into, it doesn’t matter what age you are, and he’s doing a great job back there. He’s been awesome for us.”
The Knights went 45 games this season without a player recording a hat trick. They’ve had four players score three goals in 18 games since. Three call-ups recorded their first OHL points last week. Cooper McAslan and Alex Campeau recorded assists Friday night, while Owen Miniotas recorded his first on Saturday.
UPCOMING GAMEDAYS
Friday (March 13, 7:00pm at home) & Wednesday (March 18, 6:37pm on road) vs. Guelph Storm (27-30-2-3, 6th in Western Conference)
The season series is currently split 2-2, and two of London’s final five games will be against Guelph. The Storm have struggled over the last few weeks with just one win in their past six games. Guelph has been without its top scorer, Tyler Hopkins, who’s listed as week-to-week with an injury. Parker Snelgrove scored in back-to-back games last weekend. The sophomore forward from London is up to 11 goals on the year. Eric Frossard, another Londoner in the Storm lineup, had a goal and an assist against Owen Sound on Friday. It was the second two-point game of the season for him. Illia Shybinskyi has 10 assists in his last seven games. Knights forward Ryan Brown has seven points in five games against the Storm this season — although three of those games came while he was still with Sarnia. In the two games against Guelph as a Knight, he has two goals and five points.
Sunday (March 15, 4:05pm) @ Windsor Spitfires (40-15-6-2, 3rd in Western Conference)
Another team the Knights will play twice more this season is Windsor, a team they’ve only beaten once in four tries so far. The Spits held London to just a single goal in all three of their wins, while London’s lone victory was a 3-2 overtime win. Windsor has won four of its last six games and heads into the weekend just one point back of Flint for the division lead. Draft-eligible forward Ethan Belchetz is done for the season after breaking his clavicle during practice last week. At the time of his injury, the former first overall pick led the Spits with 34 goals. Liam Greentree has 10 goals in his last eight games. Nathan Villeneuve was out of the Spits’ lineup Thursday night with what appears to be a lower body injury stemming from a knee-on-knee collision with Kitchener defenceman Matthew Andonovski last weekend.
KNIGHTS BY THE NUMBERS
3 – Braiden Clark has scored the game winning goal in three of London’s last four victories.
2 – All but two players recorded a point in London’s lopsided 10-2 win over Erie last Friday night.
3 – Clark and Cohen Bidgood both recorded hat tricks in London’s 10-2 win over Erie. It marked the third set of OHL teammates to record a hat trick in the same game this season.
3 – Bidgood’s first career hat trick Friday night was his third multi-goal game in his last nine contests.
A LOOK AT THE LOCALS
– Peterborough’s Brennan Faulkner has been on quite a tear, scoring goals in four straight games — one of which was an overtime winner over Ottawa. One day later, he scored a pair of shorthanded goals during the same Niagara powerplay. He’s up to 25 goals on the season.
– Owen Miniotas made his OHL debut for the London Knights on Saturday, recording his first OHL point, an assist on Strathroy native Rene Van Bommel’s opening goal.
– Strathroy’s Austin Brekelmans signed with the North Bay Battalion. He’s a Bowling Green commit for the 2027-28 season.
– Manuel Amado scored his third goal of the season for the Brampton Steelheads.
