London Beats Sarnia 6-1 In Final Installment Of 402 Series
By Carl Chimenti
The London Knights put a wrap on the Finch Ford Lincoln battle of the 402, as they beat the Sarnia Sting 6-1, Friday night at the Budweiser Gardens. Sarnia managed to win one game of the six-game set, early in the season at the Hive.
Tonight, Easton Wainwright scored the lone goal for the Sting as he broke in alone and made a nice deke pulling Knights goaltender Owen Willmore out of position, enabling Wainwright to complete the scoring play from his back-hand at 8:32 of the third period. Lane Sim and Mitch Young assisted on the goal.
The third period turned rough with lots of hard hitting and a couple of fights as Sarnia’s Carson Hall and London’s Max McCue (Columbus Blue Jackets) engaged in a vicious bout that saw both players land heavy haymakers. The second fight was just a wrestling match between the Sting’s Lukas Fischer and the Knights Kaleb Lawrence (Los Angeles Kings). In addition to the fight Lawrence had a goal and an assist and was selected as the first star.
Ruslan Gazizov notched a pair of goals and was named the second star. Landon Sim (St. Louis Blues), brother of Sarnia’s Lane Sim was the third star with two assists. Easton Cowan (Toronto Maple Leafs) ran his OHL leading point streak to 31 games with an assist. Denver Barkey (Philadelphia Flyers) and Sam Dickinson had two assists each.
Nick Surzycia played a solid game despite being under siege for most of the game stopping 28 of 34 shots for Sarnia as they were out-shot 34-17. London scored three times in four chances with the man-advantage. The Sting went 0/3. Sarnia will now return home following the long four game road trip on Sunday afternoon against the Kingston Frontenacs, hoping to break a four-game losing streak, with puck drop at 2:05pm.
London scored twice in the first period but Surzycia was strong, stopping a penalty shot from Gazizov, as well as three shots from in close. Isaiah George (New York Islanders) opened up the scoring at 4:46 from Landon Sim and Oliver Bonk (Philadelphia Flyers). The second goal was significant for the Knights as Cowan extended his point streak to 31 games with the primary assist on a power-play goal from Kasper Halttunen (San Jose Sharks), which came late at 19:01. Lawrence drew the second assist. London out-shot Sarnia 13-7. London scored the lone goal in second period as Surzycia was once again busy stopping all but one of the 12 shots he faced, including a number of shots from the high danger zone. Gazizov scored the second Knights power-play goal at 4:54 from Dickinson and Barkey. Sarnia began the period with the man-advantage but failed to score. Dennis Lominac had the best scoring chance for the Sting, as he was stopped point blank from Knights goaltender Willmore. Sarnia totaled five shots on net.