Logan Hawery and Denver Barkey each scored twice as the London Knights defeated the Sarnia Sting 6-1 on Dec. 20 at Canada Life Place.
Blake Montgomery and Sam O’Reilly each added a goal and an assist as London headed into the holiday break in first place overall in the Ontario Hockey League.
The Knights lead both the Windsor Spitfires and the Kitchener Rangers by five points in the standings.
London also goes into the break having won 21 of their past 23 games.
The Knights got on the board first on a gorgeous cross-ice pass through centre ice from Cam Allen to Sam O’Reilly that sent the Edmonton Oilers prospect into the Sarnia zone where he scored his 13th goal of the season just 3:32 into the game.
O’Reilly appeared to score again but his shot clanked off both posts and stayed out of the Sting net, and then the play travelled 200 feet and Ryan Brtown scored for Sarnia to tie the game 1-1.
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So what was almost a two goal lead for London instead saw the Sting goal wind things back to square one.
The Knights went ahead 2-1 before the end of the period on a power play goal by Blake Montgomery as the Ottawa Senators draft pick scored his 10th of the season at 18:56.
London pushed their lead to 4-1 with a pair of goals just one minute and 16 seconds apart.
First Montgomery made two beautiful moves to get deep into the Sarnia zone, then flicked a pass to Denver Barkey and the Knights captain beat Nick Surzycia high. Logan Hawery then ripped a shot into the Sting net to push London’s lead to three goals.
Barkey got his second of the night on a power play in the third period on a slick feed from O’reilly. Hawery then scored his second to complete the scoring as he took a pass from Noah Read on a two-on-one and went to the backhand, before sliding the puck home to make it 6-1.
The Knights outshot the Sting 36-27.
London was 2-for-7 on the power play and a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.
London Knights honour Carol Steadman, Abakar Kazbekov
Before their game against Sarnia, the Knights took time to remember Carol Steadman who passed away on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. Carol was the sister of Mark and Dale Hunter and the mother of London assistant coach Rick Steadman.
The Knights also paid tribute to former teammate Abakar Kazbekov as they marked the anniversary of his passing on Dec. 17, 2022.
Up next
London will return from the holiday break with a trip to Flint, Mich.
The Knights will face the Flint Firebirds on Sunday, Dec. 29 at the Dort Financial Center before meeting the Sarnia Sting in a home-and-home to close out 2024 and ring in 2025.
London opened the season with back-to-back games against the Firebirds that saw the road team win in both cases.
The pregame show will begin at 3:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at 980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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