London Knights win 15th straight game and rise to 1st place overall in the OHL standings – London

Facing three key veterans, the London Knights got an early star performance from the overmatched Austin Elliott as they defeated the Ottawa 67's 2-1 in a shootout Sunday at Canada Life Place, earning their 15th straight victory.

Elliott stopped 29 shots in the match and then put aside four of five shooters in the shootout to improve to 9-0 in the London Borders.

The win moved the Knights two points ahead of the Windsor Spitfires for first place in the Ontario Hockey League standings.

London was missing a total of four players after their game against the Saginaw Spirit on November 23.

Kasper Halttunen and Ryder Boulton were both given heavy five-minute penalties and game fouls. These actions will be reviewed by the league to assess further penalties, but each player missed the game against Ottawa, as did Denver Barkey and Easton Cowan.

Cowan and Barkey are dealing with what London assistant coach Dylan Hunter described as “little aches and pains” and said the decision was made to keep them out of the lineup to try to minimize the risk of those injuries getting worse.

Receive national news daily

Get the day's top news, political, economic and current headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Rene Van Bommel set up Logan Hawery for the first goal of the game when Van Bommel fought through traffic in the right corner at the end of the 67 and got the puck to the edge of the Ottawa crease, where Hawery scored his second goal of rolled into the weekend.

The game remained that way into the third period, as both teams fought through the rubbery legs and foggy concentration that comes with playing three games in three days.

Will Gerrior tied the game with 6:49 left in regulation time when he found a bouncing puck in the slot and made a shot from close range.

Overtime solved nothing despite chances in both directions, including a breakaway opportunity for Knights forward Jacob Julien in the final seconds.

Julien and Sam O'Reilly both scored in the shootout for London.

Ottawa defeated the Knights 30-29.

The teams came into the game with the two best power plays in the OHL, but neither was able to score.

Marner just keeps making magic

In his final season with the London Knights, Mitch Marner had 39 goals and 116 points, won the Red Tilson Trophy winner as OHL's Most Outstanding Player and was also named Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year. From that point on, Marner has yet to slow down and in the absence of fellow Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews, Marner has stepped up even more. Marner was held off the scoresheet just once in a twelve-game stretch leading up to Toronto's game against the Utah Hockey Club on November 24. Marner leads the Maple Leafs in scoring with 26 points in 20 games in 2024-2025.

Next

The Knights head east for games against the Peterborough Petes, Kingston Frontenacs and Ottawa 67's, starting with a game against the Petes on November 28 at the Peterborough Memorial Centre.

London and Peterborough were the last two teams in the OHL in 2023 when they met in the championship series. This season they are on opposite sides of the standings. The Petes have just two wins in 23 games played this year.

Coverage begins at 6:30 PM on 980 CFPL, op http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

&copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.