Knights outlast Moose Jaw, improve to 2-0 at Memorial Cup presented by DowThe London Knights collected a second win at the 2024 Memorial Cup presented by Dow after a 5-4 win over the Moose Jaw Warriors in Saginaw, Michigan.
Ruslan Gazizov, Sam Dickinson, Sam O’Reilly, Landon Sim (STL) and Kasper Halttunen (SJ) scored for London while Michael Simpson collected his second straight win after a 26-save performance.
“Obviously it’s new going against two teams we’ve never played,” Dickinson said. “It’s been different but you have to jump right into it right away with such a quick tournament so to get those two games out of the way and have two wins is nothing to complain about.”
Ethan Sememiuk had a pair of goals for Moose Jaw while Denton Mateychuk (CBJ) also found the back of the net. Jackson Unger turned away 23 shots in defeat.
Mateychuk gave Moose Jaw an early lead 3:39 in as he ripped a wrister from the low slot for his first of the tournament but the Knights rebounded with a pair to close out the opening frame.
Gazizov buried his tournament-leading third goal at 11:58 as he converted Jacob Julien’s (WPG) backhand pass before Dickinson patiently outwaited Jagger Firkus (SEA) to create a shooting lane to beat Unger at 17:50.
Semeniuk’s first of the night levelled the score 7:01 into the second before London struck three times to take a 5-2 lead. O’Reilly, the 24th-ranked North American skater in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings for the 2024 NHL Draft, put his name into consideration for goal of the tournament as he deked around Cosmo Wilson before beating Unger in-tight at 9:02.
“I think we knew as a line we needed to do something and that switched the momentum back our way,” O’Reilly said.
Sim scored at 12:47 as he finished off an odd-man rush seconds after a Knights penalty expired before Halttunen blasted home a one-timer on the power play at 16:14 for his second of the Memorial Cup.
Semeniuk got one back for the Warriors just six seconds later as he scored on a long shot from centre ice after the puck bounced over Simpson’s glove.
Rysavy cut the deficit to 5-4 with 3:45 to play as he poked home a loose puck with Unger pulled but the Warriors couldn’t find the game-tying goal in the closing stages.
Two wins are nice but at the end of the day our goal is to win this tournament and that’s our focus,” O’Reilly said.
London will face Saginaw Wednesday where the winner will advance to the final of the 2024 Memorial Cup presented by Dow. Moose Jaw will meet Drummondville tomorrow where the victor will secure a berth in Friday’s semi-final.
It marks the fourth time in Memorial Cup history that two OHL teams have started the tournament with 2-0 records, following past instances in 2017, 1990 and 1984.
“We know each other well and two good teams are going to battle,” Knights head coach Dale Hunter said of Wednesday’s contest with Saginaw. Tonight’s result also ensures that Thursday’s tie-breaker game will not be played.
