Sam Dickinson begins third-period comeback as London Knights win first game at Canada Life Place

The London Knights were a perfect 1-0 at Canada Life Place.

In his inaugural game at his newly named home, Sam Dickinson scored two power play goals just 14 seconds apart to complete a hat trick and then Evan Van Gorp toe-dragged a defender and scored the game-winning goal to give the London Knights a 5–4 victory over the Barrie Colts on October 11 in front of 9,061 fans.

The trio of goals brought London back from a 4-2 third period deficit.

All three of Dickinson's goals in the game came on the man advantage.

The San Jose Sharks first-rounder now has four goals on the season and each of them has been a power play goal.

The Knights opened the scoring late in the first when Easton Cowan made a backhand pass from the left side of the Barrie zone that freed Dickinson to enter the middle of the blue line and pick his spot for his second goal of the season at the 19 mark. :06.

Two second-period goals from former Ottawa 67s forward Brad Gardiner put Barrie ahead 2-1 in the first six minutes of the second period, before London came back to tie the game with Jesse Nurmi's first career goal in the OHL.

Denver Barkey put the puck behind the Colts' net and fed Nurmi, who shot past Sam Hillebrandt to make it 2-2.

Barrie got back in front before the end of the second when Wakely scored his first goal in a Colts uniform with 6.2 seconds remaining. He arrived with a lack of manpower.

Wakely was acquired by Barrie on October 9 in a trade with the North Bay Battalion.

Wakely scored his second short-handed goal near the end of the Knights' man advantage at 3:25 of the third period to put Barrie ahead 4-2.

The score remained that way after midway through the third, when London found themselves with a 5-on-3 lead.

Dickinson scored his second goal of the game at 13:22 to cut Barrie's lead to just before the Colts' first penalty ended.

In the faceoff, Dickinson played the freight train and crossed the Barrie blue line and shot over Hillbrandt to even the score at 4-4.

Just under two minutes later, Jared Woolley threw a pass to Van Gorp entering the Colts' zone on the left side and Van Gorp entered the slot, dragged the puck around a defender and took it off Hillebrandt's block and in when the Canada Life Place erupted.

Cowan and Oliver Bonk each had two assists in the game.

Cowan also got the crowd out of their seats with a second-period back-check that saw him catch Utah first-rounder Cole Beaudoin on a breakaway. Cowan stole the puck cleanly from Beaudoin's stick and then calmly sent it back down the ice.

Barrie outscored the Knights 25-24.

Chasing your own record

In 2023–24, the London Knights tied the Ontario Hockey League record for most short-handed goals in a season in which they scored 29. No team had done this since the 1988–89 Niagara Falls Thunder, a franchise that resides in Erie , Pennsylvania., for almost 30 years. This shows how rare such a feat is. London have already scored two shirt goals in 2024-25 and with the return of Easton Cowan and Denver Barkey the question is: how many can the Knights score this season? Barkey and Cowan tied for first in shorthanded goals a year ago with seven each.

Next

London will host the Guelph Storm on Saturday, October 14 at 4 p.m.

The Storm are missing a key piece from their team for now and perhaps even for the entire season.

Londoner Jett Luchanko was part of the Philadelphia Flyers' opening night roster and made his NHL debut on October 11 in Vancouver.

Guelph has gone 3-2 since the start and is coming off a win over the Peterborough Petes.

The pre-game will begin at 3:30 pm on 980 CFPL at and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.