The London Knights overcame a more difficult start to overcome the Moose Jaw Warriors 5-4 on Monday at the Memorial Cup in Saginaw.
Dale Hunter’s men thus sign a second victory in as many games in this edition. His team immediately advances to the semi-finals.
The Warriors will not have time to brood over this defeat since they will face the Drummondville Voltigeurs on Tuesday, who also suffered defeat in their first two round-robin games. The winner of this match will advance to the semi-finals while the loser will pack up to go home.
Moose Jaw was able to take the lead in the first period when Denton Mateychuk beat goaltender Michael Simpson at 3:39 in the first with a shot from the top.
London, who had a slow start to the game, was able to take advantage of their first real chance to level the odds by taking advantage of a failed zone exit from the Warriors which allowed Ruslan Gazizov to recover the loose puck to score.
Before the end of the first period, Sam Dickinson put the Knights ahead for the first time with his first of the tournament with a wrist shot.
The second period was marked by a collective surge of five goals.
For Moose Jaw, Ethan Semeniuk made it 2-2 with the first of his two goals in the period. He was able to take advantage of a turnover by jumping on a return shot while Simpson was lying defenseless on the ice to hit the target.
The Knights followed with three straight goals. First Sam O’Reilly demonstrated his talent by beating a defender and goaltender Jackson Unger in quick succession to put London up 3-2 just 2:01 after the Warriors tied the game.
Then, on a two-on-one climb, Landon Sim took advantage of Unger’s generosity to make it 4-2 before seeing Kasper Halttunen make it 5-2 thanks to a one-timer.
While everyone thought the game was in the pocket with a priority of three goals, Semeniuk scored his second goal of the game six seconds later when his weak shot from the blue line bounced across the ice like a thrown stone on the surface of the water to fool the vigilance of Simpson, who was completely mystified just like the 4,768 spectators gathered at the DOW Event Center.
With 3:55 left in the third period, Martin Rysavy gave the Warriors hope, who came within one goal.
On Wednesday, London will cross swords with the host club Saginaw.
Details to come.
