Down by a goal entering the third period on Family Day at Canada Life Place, the London Knights scored four times to walk away with a 4-1 victory over the Flint Firebirds.
London captain Denver Barkey scored twice and both goals came short-handed to lead the way offensively.
Barkey now owns the Knights franshise record for short-handed goals with 13 over his London career.
The Knights now lead the Ontario Hockey League with 14 short-handed goals on the season.
Barkey’s first goal came just 23 seconds into the third as Sam O’Reilly grabbed a puck in his own zone with London killing a penalty and raced into centre ice. O’Reilly and Barkey raced across the Flint blue line on a two-on-one and O’Reilly fed Barkey for a tap-in and his 21st goal of the year to tied the game.
Jacob Julien won a face-off just over five minutes later and he and Evan Van Gorp combined to set up Kasper Halttunen who ripped a shot through the legs of Firebirds goalie Nathan Day to give the Knights their first lead of the day.
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Will Nicholl made it 3-1 London with 4:47 remaining in the game as he continued to dig a jam at a loose puck at the side of the Flint goal and eventually put it in for his 15th goal of the season.
Barkey added an empty net goal with 18 seconds left on the clock and now has 70 points on the year.
It took until the 11:36 mark of the second period for the game’s first goal to be scored.
Karlis Flugins set up Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick Kaden Pitre and he wristed a shot into the London net from the top of the left circle through a Sam McCue screen to make it 1-0 for the Firebirds.
Austin Elliott improved his record to 23-1 as a Knight. He made 21 stops for the victory.
Day made 33 saves in goal for Flint.
London was 0-for-3 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Julien’s dozen
London Knights forward and Winnipeg Jets prospect Jacob Julien now has at least one point in 12 consecutive games. His streak is the longest current streak on the Knights and helps to highlight what the overager from London has been doing in the second half of the 2024-25 season.
Julien has 10 goals and 39 points this year and 18 of those points have come in the first 16 games of the New Year.
Up next
The Knights will begin three games in three days on Friday, Feb. 21, as they host the Brampton Steelheads at 7 p.m., at Canada Life Place.
The Steelheads defeated London 6-3 way back on Oct. 5 in the only other meeting between the clubs this year.
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
After that the Knights will head for Erie, Pa., on Feb. 22 and then return home to face the Kitchener Rangers at 6 p.m., on Feb. 23.
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