When the London Knights take to their home ice on Oct. 11 they will be skating at Canada Life Place.
They’ll be in the same building, but London city council voted Sept. 28 to approve naming rights to the sports and entertainment complex be granted to the insurance giant.
As for their last game under the Budweiser banner on Friday, the Knights could have had a better outcome. The Erie Otters jumped out in front in the second half of the game and stayed ahead to finish the night with a 5-3 victory.
The Knights and Otters traded pairs of goals through the first half of the game. Carey Terrance and Alexis Daviault each banged in rebounds to lift Erie to a 2-0 lead followed by goals from Sam O’Reilly and Noah Aboflan to bring London back.
William Nicholl got a puck to the Otters crease and O’Reilly put it in at 15:10 of the opening frame. At the second period’s 6:10 mark, Blake Arrowsmith fed a puck to Aboflan in front of the Erie net. The winger from Elliott Lake, Ont., scored his first Ontario Hockey League goal and the game was tied 2-2.
Before the period ended, Daviault picked up his second goal of the game on an Otters power play and Erie carried a 3-2 lead into the third.
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London tied the game a second time just under five minutes into the final 20 minutes as Jesse Nurmi and Henry Brzustewicz set up Evan Van Gorp for his third goal of the season.
The tie was short-lived, however. Less than three minute later, Pano Fimis sent a puck to the Knight net that hit Dylan Edwards and went in for the eventual game winner.
Edwards added his second of the night into an empty net with 1:23 to go in the game to finish the scoring.
Erie outshot London 42-39.
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Alexei Medvedev made 37 saves for the Knights and Noah Erliden stopped 37 pucks for Otters.
London was 1-for-6 on the power play.
Erie were 2-for-5.
Barkey and Bonk come back
The Philadelphia Flyers assigned defenceman Oliver Bonk and forward Denver Barkey to the London Knights on Friday afternoon, just before London met the Otters at Budweiser Gardens.
Bonk played in four pre-season games for Philadelphia and recorded two assists. He was named to the OHL 1st All-Star team in 2023-24.
Barkey was held out of Knights training camp and then out of Philadelphia’s training camp and pre-season due to illness. He was cleared to practice just before being returned to London. Barkey had 102 points in 64 games for the Knights a season ago.
Up next
The London Knights and the Brampton Steelheads found themselves at the top of the OHL Power Rankings this week. The Steelheads sat number one with the Knights one spot behind.
The two teams will find themselves head-to-head on Saturday in Brampton, Ont.
The Steelheads are 3-0 on the young 2024-25 season and have outscored their opponents by a combined 16-3.
They boast a lot of grit and skill and one of the most talented lines in the league, featuring Carson Rehkopf, Porter Martone and Angus MacDonnell.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada and iHeart Radio apps.