Landon Sim scored twice and added an assist as the London Knights downed the Saginaw Spirit 3-1 on March 14 at Canada Life Place.
The victory was the seventh straight for the Knights as they honoured head coach Dale Hunter for his 1000th win before the game.
The intensity looked more like early playoffs than late regular season for two teams whose post-season positions are basically decided.
London and Saginaw exchanged first period goals by defencemen as Zayne Parekh scored at even strength for the Spirit and Oliver Bonk replied on a power play for London.
Knights defenceman P.J. Fagan dropped the gloves with Hayden Barch, the son of former London forward Krys Barch.
Landon Sim put London ahead 2-1 with another Knights power play goal that came at 2:04 of the second period. Sam Dickinson picked up his second assist on the night and moved to within two points of Evan Bouchard and Rick Corriveau for most points in a single season by a London defenceman.
At that point, Sim’s goal tied Dickinson for the Knights team lead with 28.
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Sim scored the only goal of the third period as he hit 29 goals on the season to finish the scoring at 3-1.
Sim chased down Kristian Epperson as he tried to carry the puck out of the Spirit zone, took it away, spun and fired a low shot along the ice past Kaleb Papineau.
London played without captain Denver Barkey and forward Sam O’Reilly. Both Knights players are listed as out day-to-day with upper body injuries.
Austin Elliott recorded the victory in goal for London and is now 30-1 for London in 2024-25.
The Knights were a perfect 2-for-2 on the power play and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
London outshot Saginaw 28-27.
London Knights home games set for round one
The Knights don’t yet know who they will face in the first round of the 2025 OHL playoffs but they do know when the games will happen.
Sarnia, Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie are the possible opponents and Game 1 will be at 7 p.m., on Friday, March 28. Game 2 will be Sunday, March 30 at 2 p.m. If necessary, Game 5 will take place Friday, April 4 at Canada Life Place. Game 7 would be Tuesday, April 8.
Both of those games would be 7 p.m. starts.
Up next
London will head for Windsor to play the Spitfires on Sunday, March 16 at 4 p.m.
The clubs still have two games against each other head-to-head.
The home team has won all of the games in the season series so far. Both teams are 2-2 overall.
Coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at 980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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