Niagara goaltender Hayden Jeffrey made 41 saves for his first OHL win and Kevin He recorded a hat trick as the IceDogs defeated the London Knights 6-4 on March 1 at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, Ont.
Jeffrey was making just his third start in the Ontario Hockey League because of injuries to former Knight Owen Flores and Londoner Charlie Robertson and came up big again and again.
He made five saves in the first five minutes and built from there.
Kevin He crossed the 30-goal plateau with his second goal and sealed things with an empty-netter with 1:07 to go.
It was Niagara’s first win since Jan. 26 and it ended a 12-game winless streak.
Evan Van Gorp set up Denver Barkey to open the scoring for the Knights at the 11:44 mark of the first period. Both players missed time over the rest of the period because of injury,
Barkey was knocked into the end boards by Noah Van Vliet of Niagara after his goal and Van Gorp took a high stick in the face.
Both players returned to begun the second period.
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Before that He of the IceDogs tied the game 1-1 as he scored his first of two goals short-handed just 36 seconds after Barkey’s goal.
Sam Dickinson hammered home a one-timer on a London power play to send the Knights to the dressing room up a goal through 20 minutes.
After 27 combined shots in the first period the game took on a much more defensive look in the second period.
After a fight between Dickinson and Van Vliet, He tied the game on a resulting Niagara man advantage at the 12:46 mark and then Londoner Ryan Roobroeck put the IceDogs in front 3-2 with a power play goal of his own at 17:38 of the second.
Ethan Czata scored on a breakaway just 1:36 into the third period to make it 4-2 Niagara and that became a bulge that the Knights could not completely close.
Kasper Halttunen got London to within a goal with a one-timer on a power play at the 9:24 mark of the third but less than three minutes after that Ivan Galiyanov tipped a shot past his former Vaughan Kings teammate, Aleksei Medvedev to give the IceDogs a 5-3 lead.
Sam O’Reilly got the score to 5-4 with 2:11 left but the Knights could not find the equalizer.
London outshot the IceDogs 44-32.
The Knights were 2-for-5 on the power play.
Niagara was 2-for-4.
Evan Van Gorp commits to Maine
Another OHL player has taken advantage of the open door that became available when NCAA schools agreed to a rule change that allows players with Major Junior experience to play NCAA hockey. Knights forward Evan Van Gorp announced his commitment to the University of Maine on Feb. 24. Van Gorp is just 17 and plans to finish his career in the OHL saying that, “There is no better place to develop than London.” Van Gorp has 17 goals and 19 assists for 36 points this season.
Up next
The Knights head back to the Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa, Ont., for the first time since they clinched the 2024 Ontario Hockey League Championship.
They left the ice that night after a celebration.
Ten Generals players who played that night are on this year’s Oshawa squad and they won’t want London leaving their ice in a good mood again.
The Generals won the only other matchup between the teams this year when they defeated the Knights 5-3 on Dec. 6 at Canada Life Place.
Coverage of the game will begin at 5:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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