London beats Battalion 4-1
LONDON, Ont. — Thomas Zocco and Jaxon Cover scored early third-period goals to power the London Knights to a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League victory Friday night over the North Bay Battalion, handing the Troops a third consecutive loss.
Marcus Nordmark and Cohen Bidgood, awarded an empty-netter, had the other goals for the Knights, while goaltender Aleksei Medvedev, in his season debut, provided 38 saves before a crowd of 9,036 at Canada Life Place. London has won its four games in the young season.
Evgeny Dubrovtsev continued his hot hand for North Bay with its only goal, and goaltender Mike McIvor stopped 17 of 20 shots.
The Battalion, which played the middle game of a three-game road trip after a 3-2 loss Thursday night to the Windsor Spitfires, has a won-lost-extended record of 2-4-0.
After three offseason trades between the clubs, the game featured the first appearances against their former teammates for the Troops’ Rene Van Bommel and Max Crete and London’s Jonathan Kapageridis.
The teams were tied 1-1 when Zocco took advantage of a bad Battalion change, receiving a pass from Kapageridis and dashing down the open right wing to beat McIvor to the far side 44 seconds into the final period. It was Zocco’s third goal of the season.
Cover, in his first game of the campaign, scored at 3:07 after Kapageridis put the puck off the end boards from the right point. The disc rebounded to Cover at the left side for the conversion, with Kane Barch also assisting. Kapageridis, with two points in each of London’s four games, has one goal and seven assists.
McIvor left for a sixth attacker with two and a half minutes to play, and Bidgood, who got loose behind the defence, was awarded his third goal after he was hauled down by Adrian Manzo. Bidgood’s impeded shot hit the right post at 19:50.
Nordmark opened the scoring at 6:55 of the second period, taking a centring pass from Alex Campeau and ripping the puck past McIvor. Cooper McAslan also assisted on the first OHL goal for Nordmark, a Swede who was taken 28th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the National Hockey League Draft in June.
With the teams skating four a side, Dubrovtsev tied it at 8:12 after Kam Hodgson broke unopposed to the net with Dubrovtsev, feeding him on the left side. The Russian import put the puck over Medvedev for a team-leading fifth goal. Oskar Konobelj was credited with the second assist.
Medvedev knocked down Cam Warren’s shot on a breakaway at 11:32 and denied Hodgson in the 13th minute as he worked to the goalmouth under pressure.
London dominated early in the first period, with McIvor forced to deny Zocco in alone off an intercepted cross-zone pass in the fifth minute. Down on the ice, McIvor got his left pad in front of a scoring attempt by Barch at the right side in the eighth minute.
The Troops battled back and carried much of the play in the second half of the frame, with the likes of Dubrovtsev, Hodgson and Shamar Moses testing Medvedev.
Despite affording the Knights the only two power plays of the period, North Bay ended up outshooting the hosts 11-7.
The Battalion completes its trip against the Brantford Bulldogs at 4 p.m. Saturday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion acquired Van Bommel on Aug. 4 for a fifth-round pick in the 2027 OHL Priority Selection. Crete was obtained June 18 for an eighth-rounder in 2028. Both picks originally belonged to the Niagara IceDogs … Kapageridis went to London on Sept. 16 for the Knights’ fourth-round choice in 2029 … Dubrovtsev has a five-game points streak in which he has five goals and one assist for six points … The Battalion didn’t have a power play. London was 0-for-2 with the man advantage … Opening lines saw Warren centring left winger Crete and right winger Hodgson, Dubrovtsev skating between left winger Moses and right winger Parker Vaughan and Nolan Laird centring left winger Van Bommel and right winger Ryder Carey. Jax Pereira centred left winger Austin Brekelmans and right winger Arseny Pronin … Defence pairs were Carter Kunopaski with Hayden Barch, Konobelj with Manzo and Alexander Karmanov with Easton Poe … The Battalion was without Cole Vreugdenhil, Aaron Enright, Kent Greer, Declan Gallivan, Alexandre Saulnier, Lincoln Edwards and Nikolas Rossetto … Among the missing for London were Henry Brzustewicz and Maksim Sokolovskii … Kane Barch, younger brother of the North Bay defenceman, was a first-round pick, 22nd overall, in 2025 by the Kitchener Rangers from the Huron Perth Lakers U16s. His OHL rights were traded to London last Jan. 7 … Drew Jackson and Ian Rush were the referees.
