Sam Dickinson powers the London Knights past the Spirit in Saginaw – London

Sam Dickinson had a goal and five assists as the London Knights defeated the Saginaw Spirit 6-5 at the Dow Event Center on Nov. 23, 2024.

The San Jose Sharks prospect was in on everything the Knights did offensively at one end and was solid in his own zone as well all night in a game that packed in a whole lot of skill on both sides of the puck.

The victory was London’s fourth in a row and 16th win in their last 17 games.

Blake Montgomery’s first goal in the Ontario Hockey League got the scoring started at 11:31 of the opening period.

Montgomery kept a puck in at the blue line after Dickinson’s stick had snapped in half. Montgomery then swopped around two defenders and slipped a backhand between the legs of Andrew Oke for a 1-0 London lead.

Dickinson earned his first assist of the night on the play to extend his point streak to 13 games.

The Spirit tied the game later in the first period on a goal by Jacob Cloutier who was set up by Saginaw defenceman Zayne Parekh. Parekh took a shot that hobbled Easton Cowan and then took the puck and skated in from the blue line on the right side and fed Cloutier in the slot and the teams sat even through 20 minutes.

Kasper Halttunen was assessed a five-minute major penalty for a check-to-the-head just over six minutes into the second period and London killed the penalty with the help of a Parekh minor for interference and then cashed in on their own eventual power play.

The Knights jumped back in front on a Dickinson goal as he took a pass from Cowan and rocketed a shot past Oke and into the Spirit net for a 2-1 lead.

The assist for Cowan extended his regular season point streak to 54 games which leaves him one back of the longest streak ever in the OHL.

Doug Gilmour went 55 games straight with at least a point in 1982-83.

Parekh fed Nashville Predators prospect Joey Willis for a one-timer off a faceoff to tie the game again at 15:46 but Dickinson punched right back with a breakaway pass to Denver Barkey and Barkey finished with a beautiful backhand deke to give London a 3-2 lead through 40 minutes.

Goals by Jesse Nurmi and Will Nicholl to begin the third period had the Knights ahead 5-2 by the 8:31 mark and then London scored their league-leading seventh short-handed goal as Dickinson got a puck to Nicholl and he sent a puck into the neutral zone to O’Reilly who raced in on a breakaway and scored to make it 6-2.

Ryder Boulton was given a five-minute major penalty for slashing and Willis cashed in twice to complete the hat trick on the man advantage and get Saginaw to within a pair.

A late surge by the Spirit produced one more goal by Parekh with 8.2 seconds remaining but the Knights held and walked away with the win.

The Spirit outshot London 39-23.

The Knights were 1-for-3 on the power play.

Saginaw was 2-for 5 on the man advantage.

Dickinson topping charts in all kinds of categories among OHL defenders

Easton Cowan’s long point scoring streak (18 games this year and 54 regular season games overall) is not the only individual streak going for the Knights. Defenceman Sam Dickinson has a point in 13 straight games. Dickinson can play the game any way you want. He’ll shut down opponents in a tight checking, give no ice away kind of matchup just as easily as the San Jose Sharks prospect will come through centre ice like a freight train with the puck ready to make a play in the offensive zone. He is that versatile. So far in 2024-25 Dickinson has been pouring in points. He leads all OHL defenders in goals (13), assists (25), points (38), shots on goal (96) and game-winning goals (4). Dickinson has two hat tricks and is already a two-time OHL player of the week this season and is also heavily in the conversation for a spot on Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship after attended the World Junior Summer Showcase in the summer.

Up next

London will arrive home from Michigan after midnight and be right back on the ice at 4 p.m., at Canada Life Place to face the Ottawa 67’s.

Ottawa is also going to be playing their third game in two and a half days after losses in Sarnia and Windsor on a western road trip this weekend.

The Knights head east after the game and will meet up with Peterborough, Kingston and the 67’s next week between Nov. 28 and Dec. 1.

All games can be heard on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

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