OTTERS SNAP KNIGHTS WIN STREAK

Erie scored on their first two shots and added five more goals on their way to a 7-2 win over the London Knights in Erie on Saturday.

The Erie Otters didn’t have a fast start as much as they had an opportunistic start on Saturday against the London Knights.   A shot off the goal post dropped down to Joel Wigle and he slung it past Jake Patterson to make it 1-0 just 1:13 in.  Just over a minute after that, Dane Fox was able to slip into the slot and score his 55thgoal on the year to make it 2-0.  Erie then got two goals from Connor Brown, one at even strength and one on the power play to increase their lead to four with just under four minutes left in the first.

All of that scoring came on eight shots by the Otters.

London would get rewarded late in the first as Gemel Smith shovelled a pass ahead to Brett Welychka on left wing and he got deep into Erie territory and flipped a pass into the slot to Alex Basso who had jumped into the play.  Basso scored to get the Knights on the board.

Shots on goal through one period favoured Erie 10-8.

The Otters managed the only goals of the second as Connor McDavid found Andre Burakovsky with a nice centering feed and then Michael Curtis banged in a rebound and the score was 6-1.

At that point, Justin Tugwell replaced Patterson in net.  Tugwell stopped all six shots he faced, including a nice one off a chance by McDavid and the Otters led by five after 40 minutes.

The teams exchanged goals in the third as Adam Pelech scored for Erie and Brady Austin added a power play goal for London.

The final shots ended up 33-25 for Erie.  Justin Tugwell made 14 saves.

London will host Plymouth on Sunday at 4 PM at Budweiser Gardens.

Mike Stubbs

NewsTalk 1290 CJBK – Play by Play Voice of the London Knights