Knights punch ticket to 2025 Memorial Cup final
The London Knights are going back to the Memorial Cup final.
After they fell in the 2024 final, the Knights will get a chance at redemption in 2025 after they beat Moncton 5-2 in Friday’s semi-final.
Landon Sim, Denver Barkey (PHI), Blake Montgomery (OTT), Jesse Nurmi (NYI) and Easton Cowan (TOR) scored for London while Austin Elliott stopped 21 shots. Moncton had goals from Caleb Desnoyers (2025) and Dyllan Gill (TB) as Mathis Rousseau made 32 saves.
“All around I thought that was our best game of the tournament so far,” Cowan said. “We had a really good first, kind of laid back in the second but our third was probably our best period of the tournament so far.
“We had everyone scoring today, got lots of depth and it was a huge win for us.”
Tied at 2-2 after 40 minutes, London scored three times in the third to secure its spot in the final.
Montgomery’s first goal of the tournament stood as the game-winner as at 3:35 he got in behind Gill to finish Sam Dickinson’s (SJ) cross-ice pass after the Knights d-man had started a rush off a Desnoyers missed shot.
Nurmi got the Knights some insurance at 13:11 as Jacob Julien (WPG) pushed forward on the faceoff and quickly slipped a pass over to the Islanders prospect who made no mistake for his first of the tournament. Cowan sealed the win with an empty-netter at 18:11.
The Knights will now face Medicine Hat in Sunday’s final at 7pm ET / 8pm AT.
“I think our experience took over [tonight],” Cowan said. “We’ve got a lot of older guys on team, a lot of guys that have been to help close it out.”
Through 40 minutes, each squad had scored once a period.
London needed only 4:07 to take the lead as Oliver Bonk’s shot missed the net but the puck fell perfectly for Sim who was circling around the net as he gathered and wrapped in his first of the tournament.
Moncton got level with 100 seconds left in the frame on Desnoyers’ first of the tournament as scored on the power play with a snipe from the left dot.
London restored its lead at 5:24 of the second frame as Barkey and Easton Cowan linked up with the latter pulling Rousseau wide before he slid the puck across for London’s captain to fire a one-timer home for his first.
But again Moncton bounced back as Gill scored his third of the Memorial Cup with a pinpoint wrister at 7:40 on the man advantage but were unable to find a way past a resilient Knights squad in the third.
“It means everything,” Sim said. “We were playing for this all year to get back in that game.”
In Sunday’s final, both the Knights and Tigers will seek a third Memorial Cup title.
Scheduled from May 22 – June 1 in Rimouski, Québec, every game of the 2025 Memorial Cup will air on TSN and RDS in Canada and be available via live stream on TSN.ca, the TSN app, RDS.ca, and the RDS app. In addition to full coverage in Canada on TSN and RDS, the 2025 Memorial Cup will be available to stream live for free on Victory+ for viewers outside of Canada.
2025 Memorial Cup schedule:
May 23 – Game 1: Medicine Hat 5-4 Rimouski
May 24 – Game 2: Moncton 2-3 London (OT)
May 25 – Game 3: Rimouski 1-3 London
May 26 – Game 4: Moncton 1-3 Medicine Hat
May 27 – Game 5: London 1-3 Medicine Hat
May 28 – Game 6: Rimouski 2-6 Moncton
May 30 – Semi-final: Moncton 2-6 London
June 1 – Final: London vs. Medicine Hat
