‘Extremely hungry’ Knights roll over Greyhounds
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Josh Mailloux Photography
Like aggressive spiders hunting a fly, London shooters descended on the Soo Greyhounds net on Friday.
The top team in the Canadian Hockey League for 11 straight weeks, the Knights pumped home five goals in a span of 10:38 in the opening period.
They went on to secure an 7-3 victory over the Hounds in front of 9,061 at Canada Life Place.
“They were extremely hungry around our net. For those 10 minutes, it looked as if we just couldn’t handle it,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, whose club dropped its fourth in a row and will carry a 20-31-1-1 mark into Saturday’s game in Sarnia (7:05 p.m.) “They had good movement in the offensive zone. We were late to start and once you start like that, it’s difficult against a team like London.”
“We were a little bit nervous. We’ve got a young team and that’s a big crowd to play in front of,” added centre Brady Martin, whose club lost its grip on the eighth-and-final Western Conference playoff spot on Friday. “They came out humming, we blew some assignments and we were a bit on our heels.”
While the Soo was losing, Owen Sound stopped Erie 8-5 to improve to 18-28-3-3, good for 42 points – the same number the Hounds have amassed. However, the Attack has a single game in hand.
Tenth-place Guelph (16-28-4-3) lost 7-5 to Oshawa on Friday. The Storm remains three points back of the Greyhounds, but with two games in hand.
“There were six, seven, eight Grade A chances in a matter of 10 minutes,” added Dean, whose club, minus injured goalie Nolan Lalonde, started a new netminder, Noah Tegelaar, against the Knights.
The 18-year-old (2006 birth year), taken in the second round (23rd overall) of the 2023 Under-18 Draft, had been tearing up the Ontario Junior Hockey League as a member of the Collingwood Blues.
“We gave him a very difficult start in London and the team didn’t play great in front of him,” the coach continued. “That’s a tough combination for your first game. But I was very happy with his effort and very happy with his ability to fight through when the team in front of him had a very difficult time.”
Dean said he believed the six-foot-four, 185-pounder, who lasted just the first period on Friday, “got bombarded.”
Tegelaar was replaced by veteran Landon Miller, who settled things down for the visitors.
The Knights, who haven’t lost at home since Dec. 6 and improved to 42-8-1-0, opened the scoring at the 8:57 mark. Oliver Bonk ripped one from the top of the right circle and beat Tegelaar high to the blocker side.
Two minutes later, with the Hounds caught out of position, Jacob Julien was left all alone in the right circle. Sam Dickinson made the feed and Julien scored high to the glove side.
At 13:58, Landon Sim was on the finishing end of a slick, three-way passing play. Alone on the right side, he took a backdoor feed from Kasper Halttunen and scored an easy one to make it 3-0.
A minute after that, Henry Brzustewicz drove down the right wing, cut to the net and beat Tegelaar high on the short side.
It’s a goal the Georgetown, Ont., native would like to have back.
The home side made it 5-0 at 19:05 when Jesse Nurmi, just before he circled the Soo net, found Denver Barkey in front. Barkey, who was allowed to skate in untouched, fired stick side for his 20th.
With Miller between the pipes, the Soo broke through at 7:53 of the middle stanza. That’s when Martin notched his first of two. Travis Hayes made the feed from behind the net and Martin, with patience, skated around Aleksei Medvedev, who came out to challenge.
The Hounds centre went low glove side and it was 5-1.
Down 7-1 to start the third, Jordan Charron, on a Brady R. Smith feed, deposited a backhander on the blocker side at 3:36.
Less than two minutes later, Martin converted a 3-on-2, taking a Marco Mignosa feed before snapping home his 25th goal, high to the glove side. That capped the scoring.
Nurmi, who also contributed two assists, and Ryder Boulton had the other London goals on a night when the home side held a 38-27 edge in shots. London also controlled the face-off circle, winning 41 of 60 draws.
Dickinson, Easton Cowan and Blake Montgomery contributed two assists each.
Hayes and Mignosa finished with two assists each for the Greyhounds, who will also face Brantford (2 p.m. on Monday) on this trip.
But it’s the clash with Sarnia, seventh in the conference and five points up on the Hounds with a game in hand, that’s front of mind.
Asked about his message going into the game, Dean spoke of how his players don’t require a special message.
“If we’re not ready for tomorrow,” he said, without finishing the sentence. “It’s a very big game for us, a very big game for Sarnia. Our guys know what’s at stake. The expectation is to come out and treat it like a playoff game.”
“I think we’re the better team,” said Martin when asked about the Sting. “I think we’ve played better of late than our record indicates.”
