OHL London Knights

Knights Strike First in Western Conference Semi-Final Rematch

December 9, 2019 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
London Knights News Release


Connor McMichael set up two goals and Dylan Myskiw made 18 saves in the London Knight net as they got by the Storm 3-1 in Guelph on Sunday afternoon.

The victory gives London sole possession of first place in what is still a very clogged Western Conference in the Ontario Hockey League.

With 27 games in the books, the Knights and Storm each have 38 points, but the Knights own an extra win thanks to Sunday's game, so they get the edge.

The London Knight penalty kill bounced right back after allowing three goals on the man advantage against Owen Sound on Friday. London killed off all seven Guelph power-play opportunities.

"The guys were sacrificing," said Dylan Hunter who took over the head coaching duties for the Knights as Dale Hunter departed for Team Canada's final selection camp for the World Juniors. "With having Billy Moskal and (Kirill Steklov) out of the lineup. They are regular penalty killers and Luke (Evangelista) stepped up and (Ryan Merkley) had six or seven blocks and that makes a big difference."

London was facing Nico Daws in the Storm net. He owns the best goaltending statistics in the OHL this season but Knights forward Connor McMichael says the team went in with an approach for what Daws does.

"He's really good with the first shot so we wanted to get traffic around him, work the puck low and then throw passes out front and try to jam them home and that's what we did."

McMichael fed Evangelista at 7:43 of the opening period in exactly the way he described and Evangelista scored his tenth goal of the year. McMichael now has at least a point in 19 of his past 20 games. He and Liam Foudy will now head to Oakville where they will participate in Team Canada's selection camp. They will see Daws there as well.

Cole Tymkin made it 2-0 London less than three minutes later as he blasted a puck into the top corner of the Guelph net on a set-up from Nathan Dunkley.

Guelph got the only goal of the second period just one minute and one second in as a shot bounced off the end boards in the London zone right to Pavel Gogolev and he hammered it into an open side to cut the Knights lead to 2-1.

Alec Regula finished the scoring on a London power play in the third period from McMichael and Merkley.

Merkley was playing against the team that drafted him first overall in the OHL Priority Selection. Most of his former teammates with the Storm are no longer on the roster but Merkley says he enjoyed the challenge of playing against players like Daws and Cam Hillis.

"It's fun. We had a few laughs;" admitted Merkley. "We had a good bounce-back game against a very good team. They have been on fire. It was important (to play that way), especially against Daws. I'll text him after this one for sure. he's been awesome."

Myskiw came up big when called upon for London. Even though he didn't face as many shots as Daws did, the Winnipeg, Man., native made some important saves, maybe none more important than a left pad stop on Pavel Gogolev as he broke in alone just over two minutes into the third period.

The Knights continue six games in ten days in Kitchener on Tuesday. They will go to Niagara on Thursday and then race back home for their first meeting of the season with the Sarnia Sting on Friday night at Budweiser Gardens.

Check out the London Knights Statistics



Ontario Hockey League Stories from December 9, 2019


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central