Jared Woolley and Denver Barkey each had a goal and an assist as the London Knights defeated the Erie Otters 4-2 on Jan. 31 at Canada Life Place.
Barkey and Easton Cowan both returned to the lineup after missing time on the Knights northern road trip and Cowan immediately factored in on the first goal of the game.
With London killing a penalty, Cowan took a puck out to centre ice and then took a sharp turn at the Otters blue line and fed a puck back into his own zone to Jared Woolley. Erie took the opportunity to try to make a line change and Woolley caught them. He zipped a pass ahead to Jacob Julien and the former London Jr. Knight raced into the Otters zone and, like the mirror image of Darryl Sittler deking out Vladimir Dzurilla of Czechoslovakia in the 1976 Canada Cup, Julien got around Otters goalie Noah Erliden and slid the puck home for a 1-0 lead.
The play was reviewed to determine whether it was onside and the goal stood and the Knights took a one-goal lead to the second period.
The assist by Cowan extended his regular-season point streak to 63 games.
Erie tied the game just 1:27 into the second period as Quinn McCall scored his first Ontario Hockey League goal.
London jumped back in front of the Otters on a goal by Jared Woolley as he slipped a third rebound past Erliden at the 9:50 mark of the middle period.
Kasper Halttunen set up Barkey for Barkey’s 17th goal of the year just over five minutes later and the Knights were ahead 3-1.
Halttunen had a pair of assists on the night.
Before the end of the second, Malcolm Spence cut London’s lead to 3-2 as he grabbed a puck on the left side of the Knights zone and got to the net where he lifted a backhand off the goal post and in.
Landon Sim’s 21st of the season made it 4-2 early in the third period.
London outshot the Otters 41-29.
The Knights were 0-for-4 on the power play.
Erie was 0-for-3.
Austin Elliott headed to UMass-Lowell for 2025-26
After he completes his overage year in the OHL with the London Knights, goaltender Austin Elliott will head to the NCAA.
Elliott has committed to play at UMass-Lowell in Lowell, Mass.
“It’s a great league down there with lots of high-end talent and it just gives me a little bit of a longer runway to get some NHL eyes on me,” Elliott admitted.
But it has created an added workload for him off the ice.
“You can ask the rest of the team. I was doing homework on the bus and in the hotels (on the road trip) and grinding it out.”
Elliott is currently 20-0-0-0 on the season as is expected to get the start against the Windsor Spitfires on Groundhog Day.
Up next
London and Windsor will meet for the fourth time this year at 7 p.m., on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.
The Knights have beaten the Spitfires twice in games played at Canada Life Place.
Windsor has won the only game played at the WFCU Centre.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.