Easton Cowan broke a tie with 1:25 left and added an empty-netter and the London Knights beat the Saginaw Spirit 4-2 on Wednesday night to advance to the Memorial Cup championship game. Winnipeg Jet and Spirit alumni Cole Perfetti was also at the game tonight.
Alex Christopolous opened up the scoring for the Spirit at 8:50 of the first period with the assists going to Josh Bloom and Jorian Donovan.–Saginaw was the first to strike in the contest with eleven minutes left in the first. Jorian Donovan attempted a shot all the way from the blue line, but the puck bounced off Simpson’s pads to Josh Bloom. Bloom quickly fired from the slot with the puck ricocheting off Alex Christopoulos’ stick and between Simpson’s legs for the goal.
Kasper Halttunen tied it up for the Knights on the Power Play at 14:23 of the first period with the assists on the goal going to Easton Cowan and Denver Barkey.– With six minutes left in the first, Zayne Parekh received a double minor for high sticking, giving London their first power play opportunity of the night. The Knights capitalized with Kasper Halttunen scoring just 30 seconds later.
Then the refs gave a soft one to the Knights to even it up for almost the last half of the power play. But then it went upstairs and it got reversed. This is almost like people are following a script in this game or something. Looks really bad.
Shots on goal in the first period were 15-7 for the Knights
Denver Barkey makes it 2-1 after driving to the net and scoring from a Kasper Halttunen pass at 10:40 of the second frame with the second assist going to Isaiah George.
Joey Wills tied the game for the Spirit at 4:20 of the second period with the assist going to Zayne Parekh. – With six minutes left in the second, Saginaw managed to tie the game up, 2-2. After collecting a pass from Zayne Parekh, Joey Willis swiftly rifled a shot over Simpson’s shoulder from the right-wing circle for his first Memorial Cup goal.
Shots on goal in the second period were 15-8 for Saginaw
Easton Cowan scores with 1:24 left in the game to make it 3-2 London.- With only a few minutes left in the game, Easton Cowan scored a late goal to give London a 3-2 lead. Oliver Bonk and Sam O’Reilly both were credited with the assists on this goal. A few seconds later Cowan would score another goal into an empty net to seal a 5-2 victory for the London Knights.
Easton Cowan scores his second goal of the game on the empty net at 19:38 of the third with the assist going to Sam O’Reilly.
Shots on goal in the third period were 12-6 for London. London outshot Saginaw 35-28 in the game
Michael Simpson made 26 saves on the 28 shots that he faced for the win for the Knights. While Spirit goalie Andrew Oke made 31 saves on the 34 shots thrown at him.
Player of the game was Toronto Maple Leafs 2023 first rounder from the London Knights Easton Cowan.
Attendance in Saginaw was 5,306
Semi Final game is Moose Jaw Warriors against Saginaw on Friday. The winner of that game will go on to play the London Knights in the final on Sunday.
