For the fifth season in a row the London Knights will finish atop the Midwest Division.
Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk each had a goal and an assist. Easton Cowan recorded two assists to extend his point streak to within one game of the all-time Knights record, as London defeated the Kitchener Rangers 4-1 in an afternoon game at Budweiser Gardens on March 9.
The Knights scored three times in a second period that saw them outshoot the Rangers 14-6.
It took a fortunate bounce to finally break the ice after Michael Simpson of London and Jackson Parsons of the Rangers had combined for 20 first-period saves.
Knights forward Jacob Julien went to the net with Kitchener defenceman Matt Andonovski stride for stride. Just as it looked like Andonovski was going to force Julien by the post Julien batted the puck off Andonovski and into the Rangers net and it was 1-0 for London.
Cowan went to work after that first setting up Oliver Bonk who spun in the slot and scored his 24th goal of the year to extend Cowan’s point streak to 32 games. That leaves him one game shy of former Knights defenceman Dave Gilmore who went 33 consecutive games in the 1993-94 OHL season.
Cowan then fed a pass to Denver Barkey for his 32nd goal of the season and London led 3-0 after 40 minutes.
Mitchell Martin scored Kitchener’s only goal 2:11 into the third period on a feed from Carson Campbell.
Kaleb Lawrence closed out the scoring into an empty net n the final minute to give the Knights 94 points on the season.
London outshot the Rangers 31-24.
Longest OHL point streaks in past 30 years
Easton Cowan moved to within one game of the Knights record for longest point streak that has been held by Dave Gilmore going back to the 1993-94 season. Cowan’s 32-game streak now has the Maple Leafs prospect is in some pretty exclusive company.
Here are the longest OHL point streaks of the past 30 years:
41 games – Bill Bowler – Windsor Spitfires – 1994-95
34 games – Trevor Letowski – Sarnia Sting – 1996-97
33 games – Dave Gilmore – London Knights – 1993-94
32 games – Easton Cowan – London Knights – 2023-24
32 games – Brett MacLean – Oshawa generals – 2007-08
Doug Gilmour owns the longest point streak in OHL history. He went 55 straight games with at least a point in 1982-83.
Up next
London will play their second-to-last road game on March 13 when they head for Erie to face the Otters.
Erie has won three of the five games between the two clubs this year and both that have been played at Erie Insurance Arena.
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
