Preview: Firebirds Welcome #4 London To Flint For First Time

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After earning a 4-3 victory on the road in Sarnia Friday night, the Firebirds return back home Saturday night for their third game in three days as Flint (17-32-4-2, 5th West Division) welcomes the CHL’s #4 ranked London Knights (40-12-2-1, 2nd Midwest Division) to the Dort Federal Event Center for the first time. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. (EST) and the first 200 fans in attendance will receive a free hat courtesy of Dort Federal Credit Union.

London holds a 2-0 record against Flint this season with both contests being held on the Knights home ice. Earlier this season, the Firebirds fell to the Knights 3-1 in London in a game that was internationally televised on Sportsnet throughout Canada and re-aired in the United States on the NHL Network. Flint’s Brent Moran (Dallas ’14) made 39 saves and Will Bitten scored the lone goal for the Firebirds while on a breakaway in front of a sell-out crowd of 9,046 fans (Watch Highlights). London then earned a 5-2 victory over Flint on Monday afternoon (Watch Highlights).

Single game tickets are $12/Bronze, $15/Silver, $19/Gold and $25/VIP and can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com or by visiting or calling the Dort Federal Event Center Box Office Monday thru Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at (810) 744-0580. Saturday and Sunday game day box office hours begin at 10 a.m.

Radio & TV Coverage
Fans unable to attend Saturday’s game can listen live in Flint and Mid-Michigan on 1330 AM WTRX Sports Radio and around the world online on the iHeartRadio app. Dominic Hennig will call the play-by-play action on the Flint Firebirds Hockey Radio Network. Pregame coverage will begin 30 minutes prior to puck drop at 7:00 p.m.

Saturday’s game against the Knights will also be televised live in London on channel 13 for Rogers TV cable subscribers. In addition, the game will be televised live across the province of Ontario on the OHL Action Pak on cable channel 440. OHL fans with cable television in Ontario can add the OHL Action Pak to their television plan to catch the Firebirds in action, home or away all season long. Along with Saturday’s game, 64 of the Firebirds’ 68 games throughout the 2015-16 season are also scheduled to be televised live across the province of Ontario on the OHL Action Pak.

All Flint Firebirds home and away games throughout the 2015-16 season can be watched anywhere in the world online on OHL Live and on the OHL Live App. OHL Live is a league video streaming platform that delivers high quality live and on-demand coverage of all regular season and playoff games annually. The cost is $6.99 per game, $69.99 for Flint Firebirds away games only, $179.99 for all 68 home and away Firebirds games and $279.99 for all 1,360 OHL games throughout the 2015-16 season.

Players to Watch:

Flint:

Ryan Moore continued his point streak Friday night, pushing his production to 10 points in the eight games in the month of February. Moore has six goals in those eight games and is second on the team with 39 points in 55 games this season.

Will Bitten leads the Firebirds with 54 points in 54 games and has tallied 5 points in the last five games. Bitten has earned multi-point nights 13 times this campaign and is considered a top prospect heading into the NHL Draft this June.

After earning the game-winning goal in Sarnia Friday night, Vili Saarijärvi (Detroit ’15) has 11 goals and 33 points in 46 games this campaign, which makes him 11th among all d-man in the OHL.

In net, Brent Moran (Dallas ’14) holds a 3.61 goals against average (GAA) and a .888 save percentage (SAV%). Moran earned the win Friday night with 38 saves and has a 12-21-4-0 record in his 4th campaign in the OHL.

Flint’s rookie netminder Kyle Keyser has a 3.60 GAA and a .899 SAV%. Rounding out the Firebirds’ crease is rookie netminder Matthew Menna. Menna has a 4.57 GAA and a .866 SV%.

In addition, Will Bitten, Nicholas Caamano, Jacob Collins, Dane Johnstone, Matyáš Kantner, Luke Kirwan and Håkon Nilsen are eligible to be selected in the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo in June.

London:

The Knights have three of the top five point producers in the OHL. Christian Dvorak, a 2nd round draft pick by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2014 NHL Draft has 42 goals and 98 points in 46 games played this season. Mitchell Marner, the fourth pick overall in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs, has 35 goals and 90 points in 44 games this season.

Matthew Tkachuk is fifth in points in the OHL with 83 in 44 games this season and is expected to be a top five pick overall in the 2016 NHL Draft this June in Buffalo, NY.

There are 67 OHL players that appeared in the NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Rankings for the 2016 NHL Draft. The rankings list a total of 210 North American skaters and include London’s Matthew Tkachuk (#1), Olli Juolevi (#5), Max Jones (#11), Victor Mete (#58), Cliff Pu (#83), Brandon Crawley (#96) and Nicolas Mattinen (#103).

London has seven players currently drafted by NHL Clubs including Daniel Bernhardt (New York Rangers), Brendan Burke (Arizona), Christian Dvorak (Arizona), Mitchell Marner (Toronto), Chris Martenet (Dallas), JJ Piccinich (Toronto) and Chandler Yakimowicz (St. Louis).

In net, the London Knights are backstopped by Tyler Parsons who is the OHL’s fourth-best goaltender with a 2.49 goals against average and a .917 save percentage. The Knights are backed-up by Brendan Burke (Arizona ’13) who holds a 2.64 GAA and a .910 SAV% including an 8-3-0-0 record in 15 games this season.


In addition, four London skaters competed in the World Junior Championship in Helsinki this year. London’s defenseman Olli Juolevi earned a Gold Medal alongside Flint’s Saarijärvi after breaking the record for most points by a 17 year old defenseman with 9 points in the tournament. Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk represented Team USA while Mitch Marner was the lone Knight on the Team Canada roster.

Special Teams:
The Firebirds have recorded at least one power play goal in four of the last five games but are still 19th out of 20 teams in the league on the man-advantage. Flint’s power play is converting at a 13.5% success-rate, scoring 30 goals on 223 opportunities. On the penalty kill, the Firebirds are 17th in the OHL, currently operating at 76.5%. Flint has scored two shorthanded goals and has successfully killed 166 of 217 penalties this season. The Firebirds are near the middle of the pack with the 9th least minutes in the OHL recording an average of 11.7 minutes per game.

London’s power play is ranked 1st in the OHL, scoring 28.6% of the time and is 2nd on the penalty kill at 83.8%. The Knights have registered the third most penalty minutes in the OHL averaging 15.2 minutes in the box per game. 

Next Home Game:
After making the trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. for a mid-week contest against the Greyhouds this coming Wednesday, Flint will then play host to the Greyhounds Friday night at 7:30 p.m. (EST).

Sault Ste. Marie has five players that are drafted by NHL clubs consisting of Gustav Bouramman (Minnesota), Brandon Halverson (New York Rangers), Zach Senyshyn (Boston), Blake Speers (New Jersey) and Colton White (New Jersey).

The Greyhounds have six players that are listed in the NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Rankings for the 2016 NHL Draft: Timothy Gettinger (#28), Boris Katchouk (#32), Jack Kopacka (#33) and Hayden Verbeek (#164). Joseph Raaymakers is the #4 listed goaltender in North America.

Single game tickets are $12/Bronze, $15/Silver, $19/Gold and $25/VIP and can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com or by visiting or calling the Dort Federal Event Center Box Office Monday thru Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at (810) 744-0580. Saturday and Sunday game day box office hours begin at 10 a.m.