The battle of the top two teams in their respective conferences went to the London Knights as they blanked the Brantford Bulldogs 5-0 at the Brantford and District Civic Centre on March 5.
Austin Elliott stood tall for London against the Ontario Hockey League’s top goal scorer as he robbed Nick Lardis five times in total as part of a 23-save performance. Elliott is now 27-1 as a Knight and has three shutouts this season.
Easton Cowan and Sam Dickinson led the way offensively.
Cowan scored twice and has five goals in his past two games.
Dickinson has 10 points in his past four games and is currently riding a nine-game point streak.
Cowan’s 25th of the season began the scoring on a power play just 1:44 into the game as he slapped home a Sam Dickinson pass.
Jacob Julien found Landon Sim coming out of the penalty box with a beautiful feed to set Sim up on a breakaway where the New Glasgow, N.S., native picked the corner over the glove of Ryerson Leenders for his team, leading 26th goal of the year to make it 2-0 for London. Julien has two assists in the game.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The San Jose Sharks prospect took a dish pass from Noah Read across the Bulldogs blue line and then backhanded his 25th goal past Leenders at 6:19. Dickinson then got a puck to Jesse Nurmi coming down left wing short-handed and Nurmi did the rest, fending off a couple of Brantford defenders (one who was being called for a penalty) and scored to give the Knights a 4-0 advantage going into the final 20 minutes.
Julien stole a puck in the Bulldogs zone early in the third period and went to the net where he slipped a pass across the slot to Cowan for his second of the night and 26th of the year, which tied him with Sim for most goals on the London roster.
The Knights held the best power play in the OHL to no goals on five chances.
London was 1-for-1 on the power play themselves.
The Knights outshot Brantford 35-28.
The victory was Dale Hunter’s 999th in the regular season in his career in London.
Max Jones heads to Oilers
Former London Knight Max Jones is set to play in Alberta for the first time since winning the Memorial Cup in Red Deer in 2016.
Jones and Trent Frederic were acquired by the Oilers from the Boston Bruins along with unsigned prospect Petr Hauser on March 4 in a three-team trade that also included the New Jersey Devils. Jones was a first-round pick of the Knights in 2014 and arrived in London for the 2015-16 Memorial Cup championship season.
Jones helped to set up the tying goal in the Memorial Cup final by throwing a big hit in the right corner of the Rouyn-Noranda zone that dislodged a puck and allowed Aaron Berisha to find Christian Dvorak in front of the net.
Up next
London will be back home on Friday, March 7 after three consecutive road games and will face another top team in the Eastern Conference.
The Kingston Frontenacs are in a fight with Oshawa, Barrie and Brantford for top spot in the East and will make their only appearance at Canada Life Place.
London came back from a 4-2 third period deficit to edged Kingston 5-4 in a shootout on Nov. 29 at Slush Puppie Place.
Coverage will start at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
