Jack Pridham and Trent Swick each had a goal and an assist in a 5-2 win by the Kitchener Rangers as they handed the London Knights their first regulation loss since Dec. 14.
The loss by London ended a run of 11 straight games that saw the Knights go 10-0-1.
After each team skated through a power play without scoring the home town Rangers found the back of the night net when Jack Pridham forced a turnover deep in the London zone, zipped behind the Knight net and found Kitchener captain Matt Andonovski coming off the right point and the Senators prospect one-timed a shot past Alexei Medvedev at 17:38 of the opening period.
Kitchener increased their lead to 2-0 when Cameron Mercer converted a Chris Grisolia feed on a short-handed 2-on-1 just 1:59 into the second period.
Landon Sim cut that lead in half when he lifted a rebound past Ranger goalie Jackson Parsons at the 12:47 mark of the second.
Easton Cowan assisted on the goal to stretch his point streak to 61 consecutive regular season games.
London tied the game just over two minutes later when Jacob Julien slid a pass across the slot to Blake Montgomery and Montgomery connected for his 18th of the season.
Kitchener jumped back in front on a late second period power play goal by Jack Pridham and took a 3-2 lead into the final 20 minutes.
Tanner Lam poked in a rebound to the right of the Knight net just under three minutes into the third period to make it 4-2 for the Rangers and then Trent Swick iced the game with a short-handed goal into an empty net.
The shots in the game were 30-30.
London was 0-for-4 on the power play.
Kitchener was 1-for-3.
Easton Cowan equals Mario Lemieux
Easton Cowan has now recorded at least one point in 61 regular season games. That feat that goes back over two seasons has now tied something Mario Lemieux did in 1983-84.
Lemiux played in 70 games that year and amassed 282 points. (That is still a Canadian Hockey League record.) Lemieux was held scoreless only once and it didn’t happen until Feb. 26, 1984. That was exactly 61 games into Lemieux’s ear with the Laval Voisins.
Lemieux’s Voisins advanced to the Memorial Cup that year but could not get through the Kitchener Rangers, the Ottawa 67’s or the Kamloops Jr. Oilers. Ottawa ended up defeating the Rangers that year in the Memorial Cup final.
Up next
The Knights will go north for three games in four days beginning on Jan. 23 in North Bay against the Battalion.
London will play the Wolves in Sudbury on Jan. 24 and then head for Sault Ste. Marie for an afternoon game on Jan. 26.
After three straight appearances in the Eastern Conference Championship, North Bay has made moves toward the future.
They traded one of their top lines from last year in Anthony Romani, Dalyn Wakley and Ilderton, Ont.’s Owen Van Steensel to the Barrie Colts. Parker Vaughan of St. Thomas, Ont., was part of the return. Vaughan was the fifth overall pick in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection.
Coverage of the game between the Knights and the Battalion will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.