Goals by Noah read and Kasper Halttunen broke the game open in the second period as the London Knights defeated the Erie Otters 5-1 on Star Wars night at the Erie Insurance Arena on Feb. 22, 2025.
Read and Will Nicholl each had a goal and an assist for the Knights as London won for the seventh straight game.
A power play put the Knights on the scoreboard first as Easton Cowan ripped home his 20th goal of the season from the top of the right circle at the 16:56 mark of the opening period.
Jacob Julien picked up an assist on the goal to extend his point streak to 14 games.
Malcolm Spence tied the game for the Otters with a power play goal of his own just under two minutes into the second period as he fired a shot home from the left side of the London zone.
The game stayed knotted 1-1 until the 12:09 mark of the second when Noah Read wristed a puck over the shoulder of Otters goaltender Noah Erliden for his 6th goal of the season and then Kasper Halttunen rifled in his number-matching 12th of the year less than two minutes after that and the Knights took a 3-1 lead into the final 20 minutes.
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Will Nicholl’s 16th goal of the year made it 4-1 at 5:45 of the third period and then Jared Woolley completed the scoring on a power play with a goal in the final 30 seconds.
The Knights were 2-for-3 on the power play. Erie went 1-for-4.
London outshot the Otters 36-35 as Austin Elliott improved his record in the Knights crease to 24-1.
Former Knight Namestinikov has new deal with Winnipeg
The Winnipeg Jets announced on Feb. 22 that they have signed forward Vladislav Namestnikov to a two-year contract extension with an average annual value of $3-million. The former Knight was acquired by the Jets from the San Jose Sharks in March of 2023. Namestnikov has the obscure distinction of having been traded four separate times in his career for a 4th round draft pick. He played the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons in London and helped the Knights to win an OHL title in 2012. Namestnikov set up Seth Griffith’s game-winning goal in Game 5 of the OHL Championship series against the Niagara IceDogs.
Up next
The Knights will arrive home in the early hours of Feb. 23 and then go right back to the rink later in the day to host the Kitchener Rangers at 6 p.m., at Canada Life Place.
The game will be the fifth between the teams in the 2024-25 season. London has won three of the first four.
The Rangers are the closest team to the Knights in the overall OHL standings.
Coverage 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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