Easton Cowan had a goal and an assist as the London Knights defeated the Kitchener Rangers 5-3 on “Easton Cowan Bobblehead Night,” on Feb. 4 at Canada Life Place.
Cowan’s regular season point streak is now at 65 games and Cowan and the Knights are headed to the playoffs as London became the first team to clinch a spot. Their streak of consecutive playoff appearances is now at 25.
The Knights came out firing pucks at the Kitchener net and scored early.
Landon Sim put the third London shot of the game behind Rangers goalie Jackson Parsons as he scored his 22nd goal of the year which leads the Knights.
That goal came at the 3:29 mark.
London would put 18 pucks at Parsons in the opening 20 minutes alone.
Kitchener turned the tables early in the second period with a pair of goals from Luca Romano and Cameron Mercer that came 51 seconds apart.
Romano’s goal came right as a Ranger power play came to an end and Mercer’s goal went off the goal post, off Aleksei Medvedev in the London crease and dribbled over the goal line.
The Knights tied the game at 12:18 of the middle period after some good work by Jesse Nurmi in behind the Kitchener net. Nurmi slid a pass in front to Will Nicholl and the Edmonton Oilers prospect buried his 13th of the season to make it 2-2.
Kitchener edged their way in front again as Carson Cameron swept a rebound underneath Medvedev as Campbell was falling over at 2:23 of the third period.
Jared Woolley scores the eventual game-winning goal.
Jim Van Horne / 980 CFPL
London evened the score once more when Sam O’Reilly found Blake Montgomery in the slot for Montgomery’s 20th of the season at the 7:43 mark and then went ahead just under four minutes later, when Easton Cowan and Oliver Bonk combined to set up Jared Woolley for the eventual game-winning goal. Bonk slid a pass to Woolley coming off the left point and the L.A. Kings draft pick did the rest as he deked Parsons and scored.
Cowan added an empty-netter with just over seven seconds left in the game and then bobbled his head in celebration and finish the scoring at 5-3.
O’Reilly finished the game with two assists.
The Knights outshot the Rangers 41-31.
London was 0-for-5 on the power play.
Kitchener was 0-for-3.
Landon Sim opens the scoring AGAIN
Landon Sim of the London Knights added to his “first goal” total in the Ontario Hockey League. Of the 22 goals he has scored this season, 10 of them have opened the scoring in a game which ranks him first in that category. The next closest to Sim in scoring first is Pano Fimis with seven goals.
Up next
The Knights will host the Peterborough Petes at 7 p.m., at Canada Life Place on Friday, Feb. 7 for the Don Brankley London Knights Hall of Fame game.
Dave Hutchison and Dennis Ververgaert are the newest inductees and will be honoured before the game.
The Petes were the first team London defeated in a playoff series going back to 1970.
Coverage will get going at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.