Easton Cowan channels Patrick Kane, lifts London Knights to overtime win

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OWEN SOUND – Easton Cowan credits former London Knights star Patrick Kane for the celebration.

After beating Carter George low-glove with 1:01 left in overtime, Cowan skated to centre ice, dropped to a knee, mimed making a heart shape, and punched right through.

“Patty Kane. The Heartbreaker,” Cowan said.

The Knights beat Owen Sound 2-1 Sunday afternoon in a back-and-forth game with two stunning goaltending performances.

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George made 42 saves against the defending OHL champions less than 24 hours after stopping 34 against the defending Memorial Cup champion Saginaw Spirit.

“I can’t remember back-to-back games where I had over 35 shots, especially with those types of guys, the Parekhs, the Cowans, the Misas, those kinds of guys, but I like it. I have fun in there,” George said.

The Thunder Bay goalie said he told the coaches he wanted both weekend games against the tough competition.

Cowan and George will likely be Team Canada teammates at the upcoming world juniors. On Sunday in Owen Sound, they played a little game-within-the-game with Cowan firing six shots – most of those quality scoring chances.

“He works hard and he gets lots of opportunities, and if you get that many opportunities you’re going to score one, right? He knows where to put the puck, and he’s smart with his shots, and good with his awareness, knowing where the goalie is and stuff like that,” George said.

Cowan called George “outstanding” in net.

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“He’s going to be competing for a starting job at the world juniors. I really like him,” Cowan said. “It really shocks me to see how good he is, in this just his second (full) year in the league.”

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Rookie Knights goaltender Aleksei Medvedev was no slouch in the contest either. He made 38 saves and was a 1:50 away from his first-career OHL shutout.

“That sucked. I should have blocked that shot for him, but obviously it was nice to make it up in overtime,” Cowan said.

Jacob Julien opened the scoring at the 15:44 mark of the second period with the Knights on the power play. Sam Dickinson fired the puck on net and Julien was able to knock it down before using his reach to wrap it around George.

The score stayed 1-0 until late in the third period when Landon Sim took a penalty for burying an Owen Sound defender into the end boards from behind.

On the ensuing power play, Brayden Rogers blasted a pass teed up by James Petrovski into the top corner of the net to tie the game.

In the overtime period, George stopped Cowan point-blank with the blocker before Julien rang a shot off the post while rushing down the right wing. Then, George stared down an Evan Van Gorp chance.

Give Denver Barkey credit for blazing down the ice to break up Owen Sound’s odd-man rush and turn the game-winning play the other way. Barkey then dished to Cowan and the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect did the rest.

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“That’s why he wears the ‘C.’ On and off the ice he’s a great leader for us,” Cowan said.

Cowan’s overtime goal extended his regular-season-game point streak to 46 games, dating back to last season.

Owen Sound has lost eight straight games while the Knights are winners of nine of their last 10 contests and have reeled off six-straight Ws.

NEW LOOK LEONARD

Alec Leonard played 122 regular-season games and 21 playoff games with the London Knights before Owen Sound picked him up last month.

“Obviously it’s a bit unique playing against guys you’ve played with the last three years, but it goes away quickly when you focus on the game,” he said. “There isn’t a second where I’m playing nicely against anyone, or chatting with anyone, I’m playing hard no matter what. Just like anyone else.”

Leonard goes from a team that expects to win every night to a team on the playoff bubble in the middle of a development year.

“It’s no secret, we have a lot of young guys, a lot of guys coming up and developing their game but there’s no difference. We want to win as many games here as we can . . . once it comes to game time it’s time to go win,” he said.

Leonard said his advice to the young Attack d-men is to stay composed.

“You have to work up to it, but you just got to make a point even when you’re young of mentally telling yourself to stay composed and confident every game. If you make a point of telling yourself that, it won’t take too long until you start believing it.

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