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Kaeden Hawkins and Ryan Brown each had three points and Seb Gatto made 28 saves in goal as the London Knights defeated the Guelph Storm 6-2 on March 18 at the Sleeman Centre.
Hawkins and Brown each scored once and added two assists as London clinched the season series between the two clubs, winning four of the six games.
The win, coupled with a 4-3 Saginaw Spirit victory over the Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday, lifted the Knights past Sault Ste. Marie and into fourth place in the Western Conference standings.
London and the Greyhounds each have two games remaining on their schedules.
The teams skated through a scoreless first period where each club had a chance on the power play and matched each other in scoring opportunities without having a puck hit the back of the net.
That all changed for London in the second period, as the Knights broke through and put up four goals.
Hawkins returned to the London lineup against the Storm after missing five games due to injury and he got things started as he sprinted to a loose puck and backhanded it by Zach Jovanovski of the Storm at 7:26.
A tough turnover behind the Guelph net led to Will Nicholl’s 13th goal in his 30th game this year as he put the puck into a completely empty Storm net at 13:33.
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Just over two minutes later, Hawkins made a beautiful drop pass to Andoni Fimis and he made it 3-0 for London and then Brown scored his 22nd of the season right off a faceoff in the Guelph zone with 1:32 remaining in the middle period. The score sat 4-0 for the Knights through 40 minutes.
The Storm hit the scoreboard 19 seconds into the third period on a wraparound goal by Ilya Shybinsky, but Jaxon Cover’s power play goal at 10:42 gave Cover 20 goals on the season and restored London’s four-goal advantage.
Jesse Nurmi slid a puck to Rene Van Bommel for Van Bommel’s 10th goal of the year at 13:18.
Shybinskyi finished out the scoring at 6-2 just one minute and six seconds later with his ninth power play goal of the season.
The Storm outshot the Knights 30-22 as Seb Gatto earned his 23rd victory of the season.
London was 1-for-3 on the power play.
The Storm were 1-for-4 on the man advantage.
Four Knights prospects named to GOHL All-Rookie team
Four members of the London Knights 2025 draft class have earned honours as members of the 2025-26 GOHL All-Rookie team.
London’s second round pick Cooper McAslan (London Nationals), third round pick Eloan Le Gallic (St. Thomas), fifth round pick Jake Ritson (Strathroy) and 14th round pick Michael Pope (Caledon) were named to the team on March 17.
Pope led Caledon in scoring with 25 goals in a tough year that saw the team win just five games out of 50 in the regular season.
Ritson led the Rockets in scoring with 72 points in 47 games.
Le Gallic tied for second in St. Thomas scoring in the regular season and leads the Stars in scoring through two playoff games with a goal and three assists.
McAslan was eighth in defenceman scoring in the league just behind Nationals teammate Cody Wood, who is also a Knights prospect.
Up next
London will play their final home game of the regular season on Friday, March 20, at Canada Life Place against the Windsor Spitfires.
Windsor is currently battling Flint for first place in the OHL’s West Division and the second overall seed in the Western Conference.
The Spitfires are one point ahead of the Firebirds and both teams have two games remaining.
Game coverage Wednesday will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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