Sam Dickinson had two goals and an assist as the London Knights downed the Owen Sound Attack 6-1 in the first game of their Western Conference quarter-final series on March 28 at Canada Life Place.
The game had both physical and feisty moments as both teams tried to set a tone to begin the series.
After some fisticuffs at centre ice featuring Jared Woolley of the Knights and Landon Hookey of Owen Sound, it was London who opened the scoring 7:02 into the game.
On a Knights power play, Sam O’Reilly took a pass from Easton Cowan at the top of the Attack crease and stood face to face with Owen Sound goaltender Carter George. O’Reilly faked a pass and jammed a shot between the pads of George to get the first goal of the series.
Dickinson scored the next two as he fired a wrist shot past George at the 15:54 mark and then stuffed a shot on net. That shot deflected up in the air and dropped down where the San Jose prospect found the loose puck and ripped it home from in tight and London led by three through 20 minutes.
The Attack began the second period by killing off a double-minor to Owen Sound forward Declan Waddick and then got a goal from former Knight Alec Leonard at 9:20 and that cut into the London lead at 3-1.
The Knights restored their three-goal lead in the final seconds of the period when Henry Brzustewicz knocked a puck loose to Easton Cowan with a hit. Cowan zipped around the boards and then centred a pass to Denver Barkey and Barkey whipped it past George with 1.4 seconds left on the clock.
London pinned the Attack in their zone on an early shift in the third period and the pressure eventually led to a turnover that Landon Sim grabbed and rifled into the Attack net to put the Knights ahead 5-1.
Just 1:13 later, Kasper Halttunen banked a shot off George and in as Haltunnen feigned like he was going to carry the puck behind the net.
Halttunen and Barkey each had a goal and an assist in the game.
Barkey had a pair of assists.
London outshot the Attack 42-25.
The Knights were 2-for-6 on the power play and were a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Awards and honours at end of regular season
The regular season came to a close for the Knights with a shower of awards and honours.
Goaltenders Austin Elliott and Aleksei Medvedev combined to record the lowest goals against average and earned the Dave Pinkney trophy in the process.
Medvedev was also awarded the F.W. Dinty Moore trophy after recording the lowest goals against average among all rookie goalies.
To go along with the hardware, Elliott was also honoured as the OHL Goaltender of the Month for March after going 7-0-0 with a 1.70 goals against average and .972 save percentage.
London’s Sam Dickinson was named Defenceman of the Month with six goals and 12 assists for 18 points in 10 games. Dickinson was also a plus-12 in those games. He led the Knights in scoring in 2024-25 and led the entire Ontario Hockey League in plus-minus at a plus-64.
Up next
Game 2 of the series will be played on Sunday, March 30 at 2 p.m. at Canada Life Place.
Coverage will begin at 1:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.