Rene Van Bommel and Blake Arrowsmith scored their first career OHL goals and Alexei Medvedev recorded his first victory in his first career start as the London Knights beat the Firebirds 5-2 in Flint on Sept. 28.
The win was also London’s first of the 2024-25 season as the teams completed a home-and-home series to begin the year.
The Knights and Firebirds traded goals in the opening 20 minutes with Flint captain Connor Clattenburg opening the scoring on a power play at the 8:17 mark. Arrowsmith tied the game for the Knights just over a minute later on a great individual effort that saw him split the defence, draw a penalty and then bank a rebound off Firebirds goalie Nathan Day.
In the second period, London pushed in front as Noah Jenken stepped up in centre ice and intercepted a pass.
Jenken got the puck across the blue line to Noah Read and Read slid a beautiful pass from right to left to Van Bommel, who picked a top corner for a 2-1 London lead. Read ended the game with two assists.
Just 31 seconds later Alec Leonard blasted a puck from the left side boards through a sliver of space on the short side of Day, and the Knights took a 3-1 lead to the third period.
Rylan Fellinger tightened the gap for Flint with his first OHL goal on a long wrist shot through traffic at 11:29 of the third. But London restored its two-goal lead on a laser of a wrist shot by Los Angeles Kings prospect Jared Woolley.
Evan Van Gorp sealed the game for the Knights with 36.3 seconds remaining as he stole a puck at his blue line and launched it down the ice into an empty net for Van Gorp’s second goal of the year.
Medvedev recorded his first win in his first Ontario Hockey League start. He had played 43 seconds of London’s first game of the season when he had to jump between the pipes after Owen Willmore’s pad came undone in the first period of a 7-4 Knights loss to the Firebirds.
Flint outshot London 35-24.
The Knights were 1-for-5 on the power play and 9-for-10 on the penalty kill.
Up next:
The Knights will face a team they have already seen twice this year as they return home from their first road game to go head-to-head with the Erie Otters.
London swept a home-and-home with Erie in early September at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ont., and at the Joe Thornton Community Centre in St. Thomas, Ont.
The game will be the first of six regular season meetings between the teams in 2024-25.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada and iHeart Radio apps.