Jesse Nurmi and Easton Cowan each scored twice and Kasper Halttunen recorded four assists as the London Knights defeated the Sudbury Wolves 8-1 on Jan. 19 at Canada Life Place.
The victory extended London’s winning streak to five games. They now have at least one point in 11 consecutive games and stretched their lead to four points atop the Ontario Hockey League standings.
Cowan ended the day with three points as he assisted on a Denver Barkey goal in the second period. That stretched Cowan’s regular-season point streak to 60 games. The Wolves were the last team to hold Cowan off the scoresheet in a game, back on Nov. 24, 2023.
Landon Sim got the first goal of the game and his fourth goal in three games as he buried an Evan Van Gorp pass on a two-on-one. Sim now has 17 goals on the season.
Knights forward Sam O’Reilly scored his 18th of the year just 2:12 into the second period to make it 2-0 for the Knights. Jared Woolley found O’Reilly with a pass that sent him in alone on Dorchester, Ont., native Marcus Vandenberg.
Vandenberg was recalled from the OJHL’s Leamington Flyers following an injury to Sudbury goalie Nate Krawchuk. Before this year Vandenberg played two and a half seasons in the OHL with Sudbury, Niagara and Kitchener.
The Wolves cut the London lead in half when Rowan Henderson snuck a shot past Austin Elliott at 5:35 of the second period. Elliott improved his record as a Knights goalie to 18-0-0-0 with the win.
From there London broke the game open, scoring four goals before the end of the middle period, two of them on the power play.
The first saw Cowan find Barkey at the side of the net for a tap-in at 10:45. Cowan then added two goals of his own and Henry Brzustewicz deflected an O’Reilly pass over Vandenberg. The play was reviewed for potential goaltender interference but the goal was allowed and through 40 minutes the Knights led 6-1.
Jesse Nurmi added two goals in the third period to finish the scoring on the day. The second was set up by Halttunen – the pair won a silver medal together at the World Junior Hockey Championship playing for Finland.
Barkey had a goal and an assist to give him 21 points in his past 7 games.
Oliver Bonk had a pair of assists for the Knights as well.
London outshot Sudbury 37-18.
The Knights were 2-for-6 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Hancock still scoring in ICEHL
In his final season in the Ontario Hockey League, Kevin Hancock scored 52 goals as he split the year between the Owen Sound Attack and the London Knights. From there Hancock went straight to the pros with Tucson of the American Hockey League and Rapid City of the ECHL. He spent two seasons in North America before making the jump to Europe where the Mississauga, Ont., native has become a star in Austria in the International Central European Hockey League (affectionately known as the ICEHL). Hancock is playing for Villacher SV and currently sits second overall in league scoring, just one point back of John Hughes who also played in the OHL with Belleville and Brampton between 2004 and 2008.
Up next
The Knights head for Kitchener on Jan. 21 to meet the Rangers for just the third time this season.
London has beaten the Rangers in the first two matchups but both have been tight.
The Knights won 3-1 in Kitchener in November and then 3-2 back at Canada Life Place on Dec. 15.
The pregame show will begin at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at 980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.