Three early third period goals lifted the London Knights to a 4-2 victory over the Windsor Spitfires on Dec. 13 at Canada Life Place in London, Ont.
William Nicholl, Jacob Julien and Kasper Halttunen all connected to break a 1-1 tie between the teams in the first of back-to-back games between the clubs.
Halttunen and Landon Sim each had a goal and two assists in the game. Halttunen was named the game’s first star. Sim was named the second star.
Sam O’Reilly had a pair of assists and won 17 of 22 faceoffs.
Windsor opened the scoring on a power play in the final minute of the first period as defenceman Anthony Cristoforo jumped on a loose puck and wristed it through traffic inside the left post with 33.5 seconds remaining.
Knights forward Landon Sim tied the game when he banged in the rebound of a Kasper Halttunen shot at 9:28 of the second period.
Nicholl and Julian scored goals just one minute and 14 seconds apart to push London ahead by a pair just 1:58 into the final period.
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Halttunen made it 4-1 on a massive blast from the left side of the Spitfires zone and just like that the Knights had a three-goal advantage three minutes and 30 seconds into the third.
The score stayed that way until the 17:16 mark when Tnias Mathurin scored for Windsor to cut London’s lead to 4-2.
The Knights held from there and earned their 20th victory in their last 21 games.
London is now three points ahead of Windsor in the overall Ontario Hockey League standings and one point up on the Kitchener Rangers. Kitchener came back from down 2-0 to edge Kingston in overtime on Dec. 13.
The Knights played the game without Denver Barkey, Easton Cowan, Oliver Bonk and Sam Dickinson who were all away at Canada’s final selection camp for the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Londoner Carter Froggett started the game in goal for Windsor in his hometown but was forced to leave with 1:11 remaining in the first period with an apparent right leg injury.
The Knights outshot the Spitfires 34-27.
London was 1-for-2 on the power play.
Windsor was 1-for-4.
Four London connections will represent Canada at 2025 World Juniors
Team Canada’s roster for the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship was announced on Dec. 14 and it features three London Knights and Londoner Jett Luchanko. Knights defencemen Oliver Bonk and Sam Dickenson and London forward Easton Cowan will join Luchanko and 21 other players for the tournament in Ottawa, Ont., that begins on Boxing Day. Knights forward Denver Barkey attended Canada’s final selection camp but was not named to the final roster.
Up next
London and Windsor will meet again on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m., at the WFCU centre in Windsor, Ont.
After that the Knights head to Erie, Pa., for a midweek game against the Otters on Dec. 18 before wrapping up their pre-holiday schedule on Dec. 20 at Canada Life Place by going head-to-head with the Sarnia Sting.
All games can be heard on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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