Goals from Braiden Clark lift London Knights past Saginaw Spirit 5-3 – London

London Knights overage forward Braiden Clark scored twice as London downed the visiting Saginaw Spirit 5-3 on Dec. 12 at Canada Life Place.

Clark got both of his goals on deflections and now has three goals in his last two games.

London struck first as Henry Brzustewicz skated in from the right point and snapped a shot into a tiny space over the left shoulder of Stepan Shurygin for his 10th goal of the season at 10:37 of the first period.

Saginaw got that back when Spirit defender Xander Velliaris took a shot that deflected off a stick and into the Knight net at 12:46.

The Spirit took the lead at 9:15 of the second period as Brody Pepoy continued to have success playing in London.

Pepoy got to the net and deked home his fourth goal of the season for a 2-1 Saginaw lead. Pepoy has two of those goals at Canada Life Place.

The Knights then tied the game and jumped back in front before the end of the middle period as Braidy Wassilyn’s shot from the top of the left circle deflected off Clark to make it 2-2, and then Evan Van Gorp found Jaxon Cover in the slot and London led by one heading into the final 20 minutes.

Levi Harper of the Spirit tied the game at the 10:30 mark of the third period but Clark put the Knights back in front again with another deflection. This time Linus Funck took the shot and Clark did the rest and London led 4-3.

The Knights held off Saginaw from there.

Cohen Bidgood made a key block on a Saginaw shot attempt with less than a minute remaining and then scored into an empty net with 27 seconds to go to seal the win for London.

The Spirit outshot the Knights 32-23.

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Seb Gatto made 29 saves for his sixth victory of the year.

London was 0-for-3 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.

The win moved the Knights to within two points of the Kitchener Rangers for top spot in the Midwest Division after the Rangers lost 4-1 in Flint.

Up next

The Knights will visit the top team in the Ontario Hockey League standings as they complete three games in four days.

London and Brantford will go head-to-head for the first time this season at 2 p.m., on Sunday, Dec. 14.

Both teams will be missing a few faces as World Junior Selection camps begin.

Knights forward Sam O’Reilly will be heading to Team Canada’s camp and will be joined by forwards Jake O’Brien and Marek Vanacker and defenceman Ben Danford. The Bulldogs will also be without Adam Benak, David Jiricek and Vladimir Dravecky who will be with Team Czechia.

Coverage will begin at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

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