KNIGHTS CLAIM SECOND STRAIGHT HAMILTON SPECTATOR TROPHY

The London Knights are 2025 OHL Regular Season Champions, after defeating the Guelph Storm 7-3 on Tuesday night in front of a sold out Canada Life Place.

The 51-9-2-0 Knights are Hamilton Spectator Trophy recipients for back-to-back seasons and the eighth time in franchise history following previous titles in 2024, 2013, 2012, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004. The Knights went on to win OHL championships in four of those seasons (2024, 2013, 2012, 2005) and a Memorial Cup title in 2005.

Sam O’Reilly opened the scoring for the Knights before contributions from Sam Dickinson, Logan Hawery, and Kasper Halttunen helped the Knights pull away in the middle frame. Evan Van Gorp and Rene Van Bommel capped off the win as Austin Elliott improved to 29-1-0-0 in a London Knights uniform, stopping 35 in the win.

Scoring by commitment has been the motto for the Knights this season with six players surpassing the 20 goal mark, four of them tied for the team lead of 27. Sam Dickinson, Denver Barkey, and Easton Cowan continue to lead the way for the Knights after big seasons last year. Edmonton Oilers draft picks Sam O’Reilly and Will Nicholl have stepped up offensively with career campaigns each. Austin Elliott and Aleksei Medvedev have formed arguably the OHL’s strongest goaltending tandem, sitting among the top in all goaltending stats.

The Hamilton Spectator Trophy was first presented to the Ontario Hockey Association in the 1957-58 season. Winners have gone on to capture the OHL championship 26 times and the Memorial Cup 11 times. The Knights went on to capture the J. Ross Robertson Cup last season with a 16-2 record in the playoffs. They’ll set their sights on finishing the job at the Memorial Cup this time around.

Entering the final few weeks of the OHL regular season off six straight Midwest Division titles, the Knights will now have the luxury to rest some players as they prepare for the start of the playoffs at the end of March.