Londoner Michael Simpson made 31 saves in net for the London Knights and Ruslan Gazizov scored two big goals in a 4-0 tournament-opening victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the 2024 Memorial Cup tournament.
Simpson made two big saves early and key saves throughout the game to give his teammates a chance to create at the other end of the ice and they did exactly that.
The Knights hit the back of the net twice in the opening period.
Gazizov opened the scoring on a one-timer from the right side of the Drummondville zone just as a London power play came to an end. That made it 1-0 Knights at the 8:04 mark. Sam Dickinson and Jackson Edward picked up the assists.
Oliver Bonk put London ahead 2-0 at 13:53 of the first on a blast past Riley Mercer from the left side of the Voltigeurs end. Bonk was set up by Jacob Julien and Max McCue who now has points in 10 straight games dating back to April 28 and Game 2 of the Western Conference Championship series.
The second period was dominated by Simpson and Mercer in net as they combined to make three breakaway saves and Simpson stymied a cross-crease effort as Alexis Gendron fed Mikael Huchette on a Drummondville two-on-one.
The Voltigeurs outshot London 12-7 in the middle 20 minutes.
The Knights came out in the third period and struck twice in the first two and a half minutes.
Julien won a faceoff forward and fed a pass to Gazizov in front for his second goal of the game just 20 seconds into the 3rd to put the Knights up by three and then a double deflection off a Bonk shot made it 4-0 just over two minutes later.
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Simpson pulled a puck off the goal line on a late Drummondville man advantage to preserve his shutout.
Bonk had a goal and an assist in the game and Julien ended with a pair of assists.
After the game ended, the Knights went looking for the game puck but Voltigeurs forward Peter Repcik tossed it into the crowd.
Repcik received a two-minute minor for unsportsmanlike conduct at the 20-minute mark.
London was o-for-4 on the power play. Drummondville was 0-for-5.
The Voltigeurs outshot the Knights 31-22.
Lawrence is officially a King
Knights forward Kaleb Lawrence has signed his first professional contract with the Los Angeles Kings. Lawrence’s major junior career endured a lost season due to the pandemic and then an injury-riddled follow-up year in which he was limited to exactly two games but the Kings saw something in him and selected him in the 7th round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. Lawrence was not expecting that to the point that he was on the golf course with some buddies.
“My agent called and told me that the Kings were going to take a chance on me and I said, “Hell yeah!’” remembers the big man from Ottawa. “There wasn’t much more golf played that day after that.”
Lawrence was London’s only trade deadline acquisition and was a force through the first two rounds of the playoffs when he put up massive faceoff numbers along with five goals and four assists in seven games.
Up next
The Knights will meet Moose Jaw on Monday, May 27 at the Down Event Centre in Saginaw, Mich.
The Warriors fell behind 4-0 against the host Spirit in their first game of the Memorial Cup tournament on May 24 and ended up losing 5-4.
Coverage will start at 7 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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