Cowan’s hat trick gives London Knights a 4-3 overtime victory over the Oshawa Generals – London

Sam O’Reilly sent Easton Cowan in alone in overtime and Cowan ended the game as the London Knights topped the Generals 4-3 on March 2.

It was Cowan’s third goal on the night.

London was finishing out three games in three days in three different cities and managed to come back from down a goal in the third period.

They also reduced their magic number to clinch top spot overall in the Ontario Hockey League to eight points over the Kitchener Rangers.

The Knights and Generals exchanged goals in the first period as Oshawa defender Luca D’Amato snuck in from the right point on a 4-on-4 and snapped a puck into the London net at the 5:38 mark.

Cowan brought the Knights back to even as a rebound kicked out to him on a power play on the right side of the Generals end and Cowan buried it for his 22nd goal of the year and 200th career point.

Sam Dickinson recorded an assist on the play and stretched his point streak to eight games in the process.

O’Reilly also assisted on the goal for his sixth point of the weekend for London. O’Reilly finished with seven points in three games thanks to his assist on the game-winning goal.

The two clubs again exchanged goals in the second period. This time both were short-handed.

Cowan put the Knights ahead 2-1 on a breakaway 3:39 into the period as he caught up to a puck that came out of the London zone, put a forehand deke on Jacob Oster and fired a shot into the Oshawa net for his 23rd goal and 50th point of the season.

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Later in the period Calum Ritchie of the Generals set up Owen Griffin on a short-handed two-on-one and Griffin scored his 17th of the year to send the teams into the third period tied 2-2.

For the third consecutive period the teams traded goals.

Colby Barlow connected on a one-timer from the right side of the London zone on a 5-on-3 power play at 7:23 of the third period for his 30th goal of the year.

Time wound down until there was under four minutes remaining in regulation time and that’s when Dickinson took a shot from the left point that hit a skate and went to Noah Read off to the right of the Oshawa net and Read buried a shot to make it 3-3 with 3:20 to go.

Cowan got a shot to roll to the goal line in overtime but it was held out.

Dickinson made a gorgeous move and got the puck to the goal line himself only to be denied by the left pad of Oster.

With under 90 seconds to go in OT Beckett Senecke took a puck hard to the Knight net but was denied by Austin Elliott and O’Reilly grabbed the puck and fed Cowan who did the rest for his third goal of the night and the winner with 1:07 remaining on the clock.

London outshot the Generals 41-33.

Each team was 1-4 on the power play.

The game was played in front of 6011 fans at a sold-out Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa, Ont.

Horvat hits 20 goals again

Former London Knight Bo Horvat reached the 20-goal mark for the 8th time in his ten National Hockey League seasons with a goal in a 7-4 New York Islanders win over Nashville on March 1. The only seasons in which Horvat has not reached 20 goals came in his rookie year with the Vancouver Canucks and the 56-game NHL schedule in 2020-21 that was shortened due to COVID-19. The Rodney, Ont., native is in his second full season with the Islanders and is fast approaching 800 National Hockey League games played. Horvat helped the Knights to back-to-back OHL championships in 2012 and 2013. He scored the championship-winning goal in 20123 in Game 7 of the Championship series. It came with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.

Up next

London will continue their run through some of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference as they go on the road on Wednesday, March 5, to meet the Brantford Bulldogs.

Brantford is home to the Ontario Hockey League’s top goal-getter in Nick Lardis. The Chicago Blackhawks prospect has recorded seven hat tricks this year and has 66 goals in 58 games overall.

The Knights edged the Bulldogs 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 25 at Canada Life Place. London defenceman Sam Dickinson scored the winning goal.

Coverage of the game will begin at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

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