London Knights return to regular season play with opening night win – London

The London Knights made a 547-day wait completely price it as they despatched their followers dwelling pleased with a season-opening 3-2 shootout victory over the Owen Sound Assault on Friday evening at Budweiser Gardens.

Sean McGurn scored the one purpose of the shootout and Brett Brochu stopped all 4 Assault pictures that he confronted as London performed the primary half of a house and residential with the Assault to start out the 2021-22 season.

The Knights discovered themselves down 2-1 heading to the third interval and pressed to tie the sport. That press lasted quarter-hour and 17 seconds till Colton Smith was capable of maneuver a puck alongside the left facet boards previous a few Owen Sound defenders to maintain a play alive on an influence play.

That puck went to Luke Evangelista and he arrange Gerard Keane who wired a shot from the center of the blue line by the legs of Assault goalie Mack Guzda, who was being screened by Smith.

That arrange an thrilling ultimate couple of minutes that featured an surprising look by rookie Corbin Votary within the Owen Sound web.

The Assault referred to as a timeout to relaxation gamers after an icing name and Guzda tried to purchase his teammates extra time by taking off his tools.

When Guzda was advised to return to his crease he wasn’t prepared, so referee Alex Ross advised Guzda he needed to go to the bench and Votary needed to take over for 3:07. Thanks to a few blocked pictures by St. Thomas, Ont. native Mark Woolley, he didn’t need to make a save.

Owen Sound opened the scoring within the first interval on a purpose by Ingersoll, Ont., native Gavin Bryant.

Landon Sim scored the primary Knights purpose of the season to tie the sport within the second interval as he took a feed from Ben Bujold simply as a penalty to Isaiah George had expired. George picked up an help on the play as properly. It was Sim’s first within the Ontario Hockey League.

Colby Barlow gave the Assault their second lead along with his first OHL purpose on an influence play slightly below 4 minutes later to make it 2-1.

Brett Brochu stopped 28 pictures and was named the sport’s first star.

Guzda made 22 saves in web for Owen Sound.

Leaders for a brand new era

Quickly after the puck dropped towards the Assault, the Knights made their management group for 2021-22 official.

Luke Evangelista will put on the captain’s “C” for the Knights and Ben Roger and Sean McGurn will function alternates. Evangelista is a second-round choose of the Nashville Predators. He made his season debut on opening evening after lacking the exhibition schedule with an harm.

McGurn had a formidable pre-season for London with six factors in 4 video games. Roger was chosen within the 2nd spherical of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators.

Opening evening and division rivals

Since shifting downtown, the London Knights have compiled a gap evening report of 13-5. Friday marked the primary time London and Owen Sound had met in a Knights dwelling opener at Budweiser Gardens. London enters the 2021-22 season with the most effective report within the OHL towards their very own division over the previous 5 seasons at 79-29-5-4 for a .714 profitable share.

The Ottawa 67’s have the subsequent greatest report at .661. Mississauga is third at .616. (Statistics courtesy of Rob Matic and Geoffrey Brandow)

Up subsequent

The Knights and Assault will meet for the second time in 24 hours on Saturday on the shores of Georgian Bay as they go to Owen Sound. The groups will see one another a complete of 10 instances throughout the 2021-22 common season.

The J.D. MacArthur Enviornment might be at capability at 4,300 seats. The pre-game present ailing start at 7:00 pm on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada App.