Two Knights named OHL rookie all-stars
London Knights right-winger Corey Perry was named an OHL first-team r rookie all-star yesterday and goalie Chris Houle made the second team. r
rPerry was the Knights’ first pick in the 2001 draft and is already r considered a candidate to go high in the first round of the 2003 NHL entry r draft.
rPerry was selected fifth overall by London and finished fifth on the r team and sixth among rookies with 28 goals and 31 assists for 59 points in r 60 games.
rHoule, 19, was obtained by the Knights in December from the Sherwood r Park Crusaders of the Tier 2 Alberta junior league. He posted a 2.84 r goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
rHoule, who had played a little in the Western Hockey League the r previous two seasons, will likely be back in London next season for his r over-age year.
rThe Knights were one of three teams to place two players on the r all-rookie squads. The Plymouth Whalers and Sudbury Wolves were the r others.
rWhalers goalie Jason Bacashihua and left-winger Tim Sestito both made r the first team.
rBacashihua, who led the Whalers to the regular season championship, r garnered the most votes of anyone from the league’s coaches and general r managers.
rHe was second among goalies with a 2.34 average.
rIn a strange twist, Mississauga IceDogs centre Patrick O’Sullivan was r named rookie of the year but only had enough votes to make the second r team.
rO’Sullivan was the rookie scoring champion and the IceDogs’ top scorer r with 34 goals and 58 assists for 92 points in 68 games. He was 18 points r off the pace set by league scoring champion Nathan Robinson of the r Belleville Bulls.
rHe becomes only the third American-born player to win the Emms Family r award since its inception in the 1972-73 season. The other Americans are r David Legwand, with the Whalers in 1997-98, and Bryan Berard, also with r that franchise in 1994-95.
rRussian Vitali Yachmenev is the only European to win, playing with the r North Bay Centennials in 1993-94.
