Greyhounds passive early, Knights take advantage

From the outset, things didn’t look good.

After a tight contest less than a week ago, the London Knights skated into Sault Ste. Marie and flexed their muscle against the Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday night.

The Knights flew out of the gate, outshooting the Greyhounds 17-5 in the opening period and holding a 33-9 shot edge through 40 minutes in a dominant 5-1 win over the Sault at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

The game came after the Knights skated to a narrow 4-3 win over the Greyhounds Friday night in London.

“I was very excited about the potential of the intensity of this game,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “Tonight, obviously only one side brought it.

“It was a great challenge tonight to see where we stand after a really good stretch here,” Dean added.

Dean said Wednesday’s contest was one in which the team will look at “some video” from.

“There’s some lessons there for sure, but those lessons aren’t going to be through video,” Dean said. “It’s going to be through talking it out as a group and what it looks like to rise to the occasion.”

The Greyhounds struggled out of the game as the Knights took the play to the Greyhounds throughout the opening period, despite the game being tied at one through 20 minutes.

“We started the game extremely passive,” Dean said.

“Very timid in our D zone,” Dean added. “They skated right through our neutral zone. Our neutral zone is designed to slow them down and we didn’t do that at all so (London) gained confidence that our neutral zone trap was not going to eliminate their speed.”

Asked about their own start, London coach Dale Hunter said it came down to two things.

“We were moving pucks and playing as a team,” Hunter said of the start.

For Dean, Wednesday’s result also earned the Knights credit as well.

“You have to give London credit, they’re a very good team,” Dean said. “They don’t give any piece of the ice for free. Everything is a 50/50 battle. Nothing comes easy.

Despite getting heavily outshot at the time, the Greyhounds opened the scoring as Justin Cloutier deflected a shot from the left point by Spencer Evans past London goaltender Austin Elliott at 6:07 of the opening period.

London tied the game later in the period as Landon Sim found himself in the slot and redirected a pass from Jesse Nurmi past Charlie Schenkel in the Sault goal glove side on the power play at 15:25.

The Knights took the lead for good at 4:13 of the second period thanks to a power play goal by Oliver Bonk. The blueliner took a pass in close to the net from Sam O’Reilly and beat Schenkel to make it a 2-1 game.

Sam Dickinson extended the lead to 3-1 at 16:34 as he beat Schenkel from the top of the right faceoff circle on a one-timer after a pass from Evam Van Gorp.

London took a 4-1 lead in the third period as Easton Cowan beat Schenkel on a breakaway pass from Denver Barkey 89 seconds into the frame.

Cowan added his second of the night just over six minutes later as he took a pass from Jacob Julien and beat Schenkel on a break high glove side to make it a 5-1 game.

Schenkel stopped 38 shots for the Greyhounds on a night when the locals struggled throughout.

“He was great tonight,” Dean said.

For Cowan, the goals extend his consecutive game point streak to 47 games.

“He’s a good player, a complete player,” Hunter said of Cowan.

Dickinson finished the night with a goal and an assist while O’Reilly and Barkey assisted on two goals each for London.

Elliott wasn’t busy between the pipes, stopping 12 shots for the Knights. Hunter credited Elliott with keeping himself engaged in the win.

“He played solid,” Hunter said of the overage netminder in the win. “He’s an older guy and has been through it before so he knows what’s going on.”

The Greyhounds fall to 9-7-0-0 with Wednesday’s loss as the team prepares for a pair of games on the road this week. On Friday night the team will be in Kitchener to take on the Rangers before traveling to Flint to take on the Firebirds the following night.

Wednesday’s victory is London’s seventh straight as the Knights improve to 11-4-0-0 on the season.