The London Knights are a perfect 1-0 at Canada Life Place.
In their inaugural game at their newly named home Sam Dickinson scored two power play goals just 14 seconds apart to complete a hat trick and then Evan Van Gorp toe-dragged a defenceman and scored the eventual game winning goal to give the London Knights a 5-4 victory over the Barrie Colts on Oct. 11 in front of 9061 fans.
The trio of goals brought London back from a 4-2 third period deficit.
All three of Dickinson’s goals in the game came on the man advantage.
The San Jose Sharks first-rounder now has four goals on the season and each of them has been a power play goal.
The Knights opened the scoring late in the first as Easton Cowan made a backhand pass from the left side of the Barrie zone that freed up Dickinson to walk in from the middle of the blue line and pick his spot for his 2nd goal of the season at the 19:06 mark.
Two second period goals by former Ottawa 67’s forward Brad Gardiner put Barrie in front 2-1 inside the first six minutes of the second period before London came back to tie the game on Jesse Nurmi’s first career OHL goal.
Denver Barkey got the puck in behind the Colts net and fed Nurmi who drilled a shot past Sam Hillebrandt to make it 2-2.
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Barrie bounced back in front before the end of the second as Wakely scored his first goal in a Colts uniform with 6.2 seconds remaining. It came short-handed.
Wakely was acquired by Barrie on Oct. 9 in a trade with the North Bay Battalion.
Wakely scored his second short-handed goal near the end of a Knights man advantage at 3:25 of the third period to put barrie ahead 4-2.
The score stayed that way past the half-way mark of the third when London found themselves on a 5-on-3 man advantage.
Dickinson scored his second goal of the game at 13:22 to cut the Barrie lead to one right before the first Colts penalty had ended.
Off the faceoff Dickinson played freight train and came steaming across the Barrie blue line and wired a shot over Hillbrandt to even the score 4-4.
Just under two minutes later Jared Woolley dropped a pass to Van Gorp coming into the Colts zone on the left side and Van Gorp got himself into the slot, dragged the puck around a defenceman and snapped it off Hillebrandt’s pad and in as Canada Life Place erupted.
Cowan and Oliver Bonk each had a pair of assists in the game.
Cowan also brought the crowd out of their seats with a back-check in the second period that saw him catch Utah first-rounder Cole Beaudoin on a breakaway. Cowan stole the puck off Beaudoin’s stick cleanly and then calmly sent it back up the ice the other way.
Barrie outshot the Knights 25-24.
Chasing their own record
in 2023-24 the London Knights tied the Ontario Hockey League record for most short-handed goals in a season when they tallied 29. No team had done that since the 1988-89 Niagara Falls Thunder, a franchise that has resided in Erie, Pa., for almost 30 years now. That’s how rare a feat something like that happens to be. London has already scored two shirt-handed goals in 2024-25 and with the return of Easton Cowan and Denver Barkey the question becomes: How many can the Knights score this season? Barkey and Cowan tied for top spot in short-handed goals a year ago with seven apiece.
Up next
London will host the Guelph Storm on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 4 p.m.
The Storm are missing a key piece of their team for now and maybe even for the entire season.
Londoner Jett Luchanko made the opening night roster of the Philadelphia Flyers and made his NHL debut on Oct. 11 in Vancouver.
Guelph has managed 3-2 record out of the gate and is coming off a win over the Peterborough Petes.
The pre-game show will begin at 3:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.