London Knights knock off Sudbury Wolves in impressive fashion
The London Knights became the first team to beat the Sudbury Wolves in regulation time thanks to a 4-1 win at Canada Life Place on Friday, Oct. 16.
Jaxon Cover and Marcus Nordmark each scored a goal and added two assists as London improved to 6-1-0-1 on the year.
The Knights were in control from start to finish, and Cover, Nordmark and other veterans such as Thomas Zocco and Ryan Brown led the way.
“We know that if we need to start getting going, it has to come through us,” said Cover, referring to the more experienced players on the roster.
Cover was a threat all night and found different ways to make plays.
“We want him to grow into what he is going to be [at the next level],” explained London assistant coach Dylan Hunter. “Today he made something happen one-on-one and set up Nordmark, and on the second one he won a battle. He is growing into being a multi-dimensional player.”
The Ottawa Senators prospect took a leg-on-leg hit from Liam Ladds of the Wolves in the first period that led to Zocco dropping the gloves with Ladds.
Cover called Zocco’s fight “an all-timer.” Zocco gave up three inches in height to Ladds and held his own.
“I feel like the hit started to make me a little angry,” Cover admitted. “It got me playing a more physical game.”
Not long after, he created the first goal of the game by going one-on-three and getting to the Sudbury net. Wolves goalie Paolo Frasca made the save, but Cover grabbed the puck, dragged it behind the net with a man on him and pushed it out front, where Nordmark flipped it in for his second goal of the season.
The Knights muzzled Sudbury for much of the second period.
They held the Wolves without a shot through the first 15:33. Even when that shot came, Aleksei Medvedev was there, flashing his glove to rob Vladimir Provorov on a point-blank chance from the top of the left circle.
Cooper McAslan created London’s second goal when he knocked a puck out of the air with his glove and got it to his stick. From there, he one-handed it ahead to Cohen Bidgood, who went in on a breakaway and netted his sixth goal of the season.
“[Former Knight] Andoni Fimis is a great pool player and we used to play. Maybe I picked something up from him,” laughed McAslan after the game.
In between, Cover scored by throwing a shoulder into Wolves defenceman Ivan Belikov behind the Sudbury net and roofing a shot after he walked out front.
McAslan sealed the win with an empty-net goal, set up by Cover and Nordmark, with 2:24 remaining in the third period.
Sudbury scored their lone goal on a power play at 8:38 of the third period when the puck kicked out of a pile and Adam Nemec tipped in a Jean-Christoph Lemieux shot.
London outshot the Wolves 32-26 and dominated in the faceoff circle, winning 38 of 56 draws.
The Knights were 0-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.