London Knights earn 4-1 road win over Saginaw Spirit

The London Knights gained a measure of Memorial Cup revenge on Saturday night with a road win over the Saginaw Spirit, the defending national junior hockey champions who prevailed during a visit to Canada Life Place one week ago.

The Knights improved their record this season to 7-4 with a 4-1 victory at Dow Event Center in Saginaw, where they lost in heartbreaking fashion in the 2024 Memorial Cup championship game. It marked London’s third straight win.

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Sam Dickinson and Sam O’Reilly led the way on offence with a goal and an assist each. Easton Cowan and Evan Van Gorp also scored for the Knights. Michael Misa, among the top-ranked OHL players ahead of this spring’s NHL draft, scored the lone Saginaw goal.

Twenty-four hours after newcomer Austin Elliott backstopped the Knights to a home-ice overtime win against Brantford, Alexei Medvedev stopped 28 of 29 shots to quiet the Spirit’s offence. Saginaw, expected to be among the teams competing for a 2025 Memorial Cup berth, fell to 6-5-1 on the season, putting them in last place in the West division.

London, a perennial contender, sits alone in second place in the Midwest division, well back of the Kitchener Rangers.

It was 2-0 London heading into the third period when Misa scored to cut the lead in half. But Cowan scored just 33 seconds later, an impressive response that put the game out of reach. Van Gorp scored about four minutes later to make it 4-1.

The Knights will seek to go three-for-three this weekend when they play the Sarnia Sting on Sunday afternoon at Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia. Puck drop is set for 2:05 p.m.

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