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The London Knights needed overtime, and then a shootout, to dispatch the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday night and extend their winning streak to 17 in a row. Jacob Julien beat Mason Vaccari and Austin Elliott stopped Cedrick Guindon to seal it as the Knights won 5-4 in the skills competition finish.
The finish lived up to the hype that saw two of the hottest teams in the Ontario Hockey League collide at Slush Puppie Place.
The white-hot Knights escaped with the win in a drag-em-down, knock-em-out, back-and-forth affair that saw London lead three times and the Fronts lead once and the 4,300-plus fans treated to an excellent hockey game between first-place clubs.
Easton Cowan sat out for a second straight game with injury. His regular-season scoring streak, stretching back to November 2023, now sits at 54 games – one shy of the OHL record set by Doug Gilmour more than 40 years ago. It’s unclear whether Cowan will be able to dress for London in Ottawa on Sunday.
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Friday night, Tuomas Uronen brought the Kingston crowd to its feet with his game-tying goal with just 30 seconds left in regulation, forcing extra time. Uronen’s shot off a faceoff win by Guindon with Vaccari on the bench for the extra attacker eluded London goalie Elliott, tying the game at 4-4.
Uronen’s second of the night came moments after Evan Van Gorp put the Knights ahead on an odd-man rush, beating Vaccari.
Van Gorp and Blake Montgomery scored third-period markers as the Knights rallied after Kingston had gone ahead on an early third-period goal by Gage Heyes, who scored moments after Uronen tied it for Kingston.
Sam O’Reilly, with his seventh of the year, had put London ahead 2-1 5:40 into the second period on the power play. Cedrick Guindon, with his 15th of the season, and Montgomery exchanged first-period goals.
Kingston outshot London 40-22 on the night.
NOTES: Both clubs entered Friday’s game on winning streaks. London came in having won 16 straight, its last loss coming six weeks ago. The Frontenacs, meanwhile, came in on a three-game winning streak and having won 12 of its last 15 games. London also entered on 16-game road winning streak . . . Kingston entered the game on a nine-game losing streak against the Knights and having won only one of its last 12 against London, a win that came back in September of 2017. Its last home ice win over London happened on Feb. 29, 2016 . . . Attendance in Kingston was 4,311. . . Kingston goaltender Nolan Lalonde missed a third straight game due to illness.
–JAN MURPHY, KINGSTON WHIG-STANDARD
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