Thirty-two wins, just seven losses — another year, another London Knights team favoured to win an OHL championship.
“We’re playing really well,” says Denver Barkey, Knights captain. “Everyone’s kind of stepping up. everyone’s kind of filling different roles and we’re kind of just riding the wave right now. We’re on a high, so we’re just having fun playing hockey and trying to win every game.”
The team hasn’t lost in regulation since Dec. 14, and the trade deadline came and went and management felt they didn’t need to make any more moves.
They had already done the heavy lifting earlier in the season acquiring Austin Elliott (17 wins, 0 losses), Blake Montgomery (17 goals in 23 games) and Cam Allen (12 points in eight games).
“It’s been a very good process,” says Montgomery, on his transition to the OHL. “It was a bit of a slow start, just adjusting to a different league in different group, but [I’ve] got a great group around me.”
Right now he is on a heater, playing with Barkey and Sam O’Reilly recently, he has 16 goals in his last 16 games.
Allen, a star defenceman is settling into his new surroundings.
“It was good timing for me getting traded,” says Allen, who was acquired from Guelph. “I got to play two games before the break and, you know, settle in over Christmas and, reflect on it. It’s been exciting. It’s a great group and I haven’t really been a part of a team like this before.”
Not many players have ever had the luxury of playing on a junior team with 13 NHL draft picks and another four players highly touted for the upcoming draft.
As they head into the second half, Jesse Nurmi and Kasper Halttunen are still riding the high of winning silver at the World Junior Hockey Championships earlier this month.
“Nobody probably expected us to win anything in that tournament,” says Halttunen. “That’s kind of like what makes it so special. Everybody was doubting on us after that first game, and just proving everybody wrong, was unbelievable”.
As talented as this group is, the final 29 games are not going to be easy. The Knights do have two games in hand, but Windsor and Kitchener are right behind them.
“They’re both really good teams that, you know, can’t seem to lose right now either,” says Barkey. “We’re kind of focusing on ourselves, continuing to build for playoffs and like I said, just try and win every game.”
