Landon Sim Scores Two Goals As London Defeats Sarnia 5-2
By Carl Chimenti
Landon Sim (St. Louis Blues) scored twice to lead the London Knights to a 5-2 win over the Sarnia Sting, in front of the largest crowd of the season 4,334, Sunday afternoon, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena, in the first of a six games this season in the 402 rivalry series.
Sim scored the opening goal in the first period and added his second goal 11 seconds into the third period and for his effort was selected as the first star. Sarnia was just a goal behind entering the final period. Easton Wainwright scored his fifth on the power-play to bring the Sting back to within one goal 3-2 after the early Sim goal, but that was as close as Sarnia would come as London added two more goals in the final stanza, which included an empty net goal from Easton Cowan (Toronto Maple Leafs), who also had an assist as part of a two point night.
Nick Surzycia played a fantastic game with many highlight saves and was named the second star after stopping 35 of 39 shots. Evan Van Gorp was the third star with one goal for the London Knights. Casey Bridgewater scored his first career OHL goal for the Sting in the middle stanza. Single assists for the Sting came from Kaeden Johnston, Mitch Young, Ruslan Karimov and James Barr.
For the Knights, Denver Barkey (Philadelphia Flyers) had a goal and an assist. Sam Dickinson (San Jose Sharks) assisted on three goals and William Nicholl (Edmonton Oilers) had a pair of helpers. With the man advantage London went 1/3 and Sarnia 1/6. The Knights out-shot the Sting 40-23 but Sarnia was better in the face-off dot 35-33. London goaltender Austin Elliott picked up his third career OHL win as he turned away 21 of 23 shots. Cowan’s two point night extended his incredible OHL point streak to 44 games, dating back from last season.
Surzycia was a rock in net in the opening period and despite allowing two goals, neither of which he could be faulted, faced a lot of rubber, stopping 17 of 19 shots, many of the quality variety.
Landon Sim driving to the net, scored on his second rebound at 11:52 to open the scoring. The Knights made it 2-0 at 16:21, as Barkey scored on the power-play from Dickinson and Cowan.
The second period was much better for the Sting as they scored the only goal, outshooting the Knights 11-9. Bridgewater received a short pass at center ice and drove to the net from the left wing and his wrist shot from inside the face-off circle found the back of the net on the glove side of goaltender Elliott for his first career OHL goal. Johnston and Young assisted on the scoring play.