Big nights from Sam Dickinson and Sam O’Reilly help London down Owen Sound – London

Sam Dickinson put up four points in a game for the second consecutive Friday night, as the London Knights defeated the Owen Sound Attack 6-1 on Feb. 28 at Canada Life Place.

Sam O’Reilly added a hat trick for London that made him the sixth Knights player to hit the 20-goal plateau.

Dickinson scored once and added three assists exactly one week following a four-point performance and the overtime winner in a 4-3 London win over the Brampton Steelheads.

Dickinson now has 73 points on the season which leaves him 14 points away from the all-time Knights franchise record for points in a single season by a defenceman held jointly by Evan Bouchard and Rick Corriveau.

London head coach Dale Hunter earned his 997th career regular season victory as the Knights began three games in three days.

All nine Knights goals came at even strength.

London came out hard right off the opening face-off and scored three first-period goals on 22 shots at Owen Sound goalie Carter George.

Kasper Halttunen walked off the left point and wired a low wrist shot by George at the 5:24 mark of the first to make it 1-0.

That goal was followed just over four minutes later by a breakaway goal from Easton Cowan as he scored his 21st goal of the year.

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Cole Zurawski cut into the Knights lead thanks to a nifty pass from Jake Crawford with 2:12 remaining in the opening period, but Henry Brzustewicz tracked down a puck thanks to a strong forecheck and helped to start a play that Bzustewicz also finished as he went to the net and tapped in a Denver Barkey pass with 7.1 seconds remaining on the clock.

London outshot the Attack 9-0 to begin the second period and eventually scored three in the middle frame.

Sam O’Reilly netted the first two for his 19th and 20th goals on the year.

Sam Dickinson assisted on both of those goals and on one in the first period and then added a goal of his own on a play that had to be reviewed because no one, not even Dickinson, seemed to realize that the puck had gone into the net.

It eventually made the score 6-1 and ended the night for George, who was replaced in the Attack goal by Komoka, Ont., native Matthew Koprowski.

The Knights scored three more goals in the first 5:01 of the third period.

First Halttunen wristed home his second of the game.

Evan Van Gorp then scored the prettiest goal of the night as he split between two Owen Sound defenders, and although he had one of his arms hooked, Van Gorp managed to one-hand the puck off Matthew Koprowski and in to put London up 8-1.

O’Reilly completed the hat trick to finish the scoring on a set-up from Jesse Nurmi and Denver Barkey.

Barkey, Nurmi and Landon Sim each recorded two assists.

London outshot the Attack 44-26.

The Knights were 0-for-5 on the power play and 7-for-7 on the penalty kill.

Three new Knights

One of the things that keeps the London Knights as competitive as they have been is their ability to play in the present but also plan for the future.

On Feb. 27, the Knights announced that they had signed three players to OHL Scholarship and Development Agreements. Jaxon Cover was London’s fourth-round pick in 2024. He grew up playing roller hockey in the Cayman Islands but has excelled after switching to the ice five years ago.

Eddie Hickson was a seventh-round pick of the Knights in that same draft and has been a top player for the London Nationals this year and forward Brody Cook currently ranks fourth in scoring on the Leamington Flyers. All three will remain with their current teams but will look to be key players for London in the future.

Up next

The Knights head to St. Catharines, Ont., to play the Niagara IceDogs on Saturday, March 1.

Niagara has been going through a rough patch. They have just one win in their last 16 games and have gone from the top of the Eastern Conference to sixth place.

Coverage will begin at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

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