Fox powers Knights over Battalion
BRAMPTON, Ont. – Dane Fox scored two goals and added one assist to pace the London Knights to a 4-2 victory Sunday over the Brampton Battalion, extending the Troops’ Ontario Hockey League losing streak to four games.
Chris Tierney and Cody Donnay also scored for the Knights, who got three assists from Tyler Ferry in moving their won-lost-extended record to 26-18-3 for 55 points, third in the Midwest Division and sixth in the Western Conference. Goaltender Michael Houser faced 39 shots.
Barclay Goodrow and Zach Bell scored for the Battalion, which got two assists from Sam Carrick. The Troops, whose last win was a 3-2 shootout decision over the host Plymouth Whalers on Jan. 21, are 20-22-6 for 46 points, third in the Central Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.
Goaltender Matej Machovsky, who made 32 saves Jan. 7 for his first OHL shutout in an 8-0 rout at London, faced 22 shots.
“It’s not that we didn’t have a lot of chances today,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler, whose charges played a third game in three days. “We just didn’t convert around the net. We don’t have a lot of natural goal scorers on our team, and sometimes that shows.”
London carried a 2-0 lead into the third period, and Fox appeared to settle the matter when he made it 3-0 at 7:49. Fox moved off the left wing and sneaked a shot over Machovsky’s right shoulder.
But the Battalion then struck for two goals in 24 seconds to threaten a comeback. Goodrow scored on the power play at 9:59 when Jordan Auld’s shot from the blue line found its way to Goodrow’s stick and between Houser’s legs. It was Goodrow’s 17th goal of the season.
Defenceman Bell’s third goal pulled the Troops within one at 10:23. Bell fired a shot under the crossbar from the top of the right-wing circle.
Donnay, a defenceman playing right wing, restored London’s two-goal lead at 12:06, charging to the net and converting a Ferry pass.
“That was the turning point of the game,” said Butler. “We scored two goals and got some momentum. We needed a shift out of our third line to help us get some other guys rested, and they couldn’t do it. There were a couple of missed assignments in our end and a lack of intensity, and the next thing you know the puck is in the net. I think Matej would like to have the third and fourth goals back. Sometimes as a goalie you’ll have games like this.”
Machovsky left for a sixth skater after Butler called a timeout at 17:49, but Houser stopped Goodrow twice at the right post and got the left pad on Spencer Abraham’s low shot from the blue line.
Tierney opened the scoring at 17:21 of the first period, in which the Battalion generally carried the play. Seconds after Machovsky stoned him at the lip of the crease, Tierney, stationed in front of the goaltender, tipped a Vladislav Namestnikov shot inside the right post.
The Battalion’s best scoring chance came in the fifth minute when Goodrow just missed steering an Ian Watters shot between the goaltender’s legs.
Fox doubled London’s lead at 3:30 of the second period. He appeared to fan on a shot from the right-wing circle, but the puck went off the stick of defender Domenic Alberga and slid under Machovsky’s glove.
The Troops had 13 shots in the frame and several good chances. Bell hit the right post from the blue line in the 13th minute, and Houser got his stick on a close-in chance by Michael Santini in the 15th. With Houser out of position, Jonathan Johansson’s power-play backhander in the 19th minute hit teammate Scott Tanski’s leg.
The Battalion scratched Philip Lane and Craig Moore. London scratches were Danny Elser, Matt Rupert, Pieter Schinkelshoek, Troy Donnay, Kyle DeCoste and Jake Worrad.
The Battalion hosts the Belleville Bulls at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
BATTALION NOTEBOOK: Attendance was 2,027, third-highest of the season … The Battalion went 1-for-6 on the power play. London was 0-for-4 … The Battalion is 10-10-3 at home. London is 11-8-1 on the road. The Troops have lost five home starts since defeating the Sudbury Wolves 5-3 on Jan. 2 … The Battalion is 5-10-3 against Western Conference foes … Opening line combinations included Carrick centring left winger Stephon Thorne and right winger Tanski, Watters pivoting Alberga on left wing and Goodrow on right wing and Johansson centring left winger Santini and right winger Matt MacLeod. Connor Jarvis centred left winger Alex O’Neil and right winger Andreas Tsogkas … Lane was sidelined a sixth game after being injured in a 4-1 loss Jan. 16 to the visiting Owen Sound Attack. Moore lost a fourth game to a shoulder injury … Former Battalion defenceman Matt Clark was at the game. Clark, who played 129 games over two seasons with the Troops ending in 2009-10, was a second-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks in the National Hockey League’s 2009 Entry Draft. He now plays for the Syracuse Crunch, the Ducks’ American Hockey League affiliate. The AHL began its all-star break Sunday … London backup Igor Bobkov was the winning goaltender in relief in the gold-medal game at the 2011 World Junior Championship at Buffalo … Onetime Battalion right winger DeCoste is sidelined with a shoulder injury. A London resident, he was acquired by the Knights in a trade with Belleville on Jan. 10 … Before the game, Butler conducted a practice and a dressing-room tour and answered questions from players and parents of the Vaughan Kings, who attended the game as part of the OHL’s minor midget recruitment program.
