RIMOUSKI — The London Knights are going back to the Memorial Cup final and they're determined to redeem last year’s devastating defeat.
Blake Montgomery scored the winner 3:35 into the third period to lift the Knights past the Moncton Wildcats 5-2 in the tournament’s semifinal Friday. London will take on the Medicine Hat Tigers in Sunday’s battle for the top prize in Canadian major junior hockey.
It's also a chance for players from last season's Knights team to redeem themselves after a 4-3 loss to the Saginaw Spirit in the 2024 final.
“We were playing for this all year to get back in that game,” said forward Landon Sim. “It was the worst day of all of our lives last year, losing that final game.
“To finally get back — super, super happy.”
Denver Barkey — with an assist — Sim and Jesse Nurmi also scored, while Austin Elliott made 21 saves for the Knights.
Easton Cowan had an empty-net goal and added an assist, and Jacob Julien provided two helpers.
"I thought that was our best game of the tournament so far,” Cowan said. “Had a really good first, kind of laid back in the second. Then our third was definitely the best period of the tournament.
“We had everyone scoring today, lots of depth and a huge win for us.”
It’s a fifth Memorial Cup final appearance for London, the Ontario Hockey League champions. Only the Peterborough Petes and Kitchener Rangers have more with six apiece.
The Knights fell short of clinching a spot in this year’s championship game earlier in the tournament with a 3-1 loss to the Tigers in their round-robin finale.
London has lost consecutive games only once in its past 120 games — including playoffs and Memorial Cups — dating back to March 1, 2024.
“It comes out of the consistency that we play with,” Dickinson said. “Losing one game, it's going to happen. But something we say a lot is good teams don't lose two in a row. We live by that.”
Caleb Desnoyers, a projected top-10 pick in this June’s draft, had a goal and an assist while Dyllan Gill also scored for Moncton. Mathis Rousseau stopped 32 shots.
The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League champions, who also fell 3-2 in overtime to London in their tournament opener, beat the host Rimouski Oceanic 6-2 in the final-round robin game Wednesday to reach the semifinal.
The Knights — a powerhouse team that boasts 12 NHL draft picks, including four first-rounders — were too much to handle.
"We know we had a tough opponent on the other side, national championship semifinal,” Gill said. “It's heartbreaking, and I think every guy in our room is going to have a little bit of regret and what if in their head, but ultimately super proud of the group.”
Montgomery gave London a 3-2 lead early in the third when Sam Dickinson beat Moncton’s Etienne Morin wide and set up the Ottawa Senators prospect, who’d snuck in behind Gill to score his first of the tournament.
"Amazing play. He's one hell of a player,” Montgomery said of Dickinson. “Once I saw him going down the wall, I knew all I do was get to the net, he would find me, and sure enough, he did.
“Right in the wheelhouse.”
Nurmi converted a centring feed from Julien to double the lead with 6:49 remaining.
The Wildcats jumped on a power play with 4:36 left — and eventually pulled the goalie for an extra attacker — but couldn’t cut into the lead before Cowan made it 5-2 with 1:49 remaining.
While several players from last year’s team returned this season, Sim said Montgomery and Nurmi are new additions who’ve matched the group’s hunger for a Memorial Cup title.
"We got a group that's been here for a while,” Sim said. “The last dance for a lot of us.”
“Those guys that are new come in and see that, how bad we want it, and I think there's no other option but to want it as badly as we do.”
The Knights swarmed the Wildcats in the first period and dominated the shot count 18-5 after 20 minutes, but London struggled to hold the lead — and stay out of the penalty box.
Sim opened the scoring with a wraparound 4:07 into the game.
Desnoyers later equalized on the man-advantage, ripping a wrist shot from the left circle through Elliott at 18:20.
The Knights went ahead again 5:24 into the second period when Barkey hammered a slick feed from Cowan into a gaping net.
Nurmi, however, took a slashing penalty 22 seconds later, leading to Gill’s third goal of the tournament.
Moncton almost took its first lead late in the period when Gill’s point shot deflected twice before bouncing off the post.
“You need a little lady luck,” Wildcats head coach Gardiner MacDougall said. “There's a couple of shots from the point that, an inch this way and we have a lead. Our goal for this game was to get the lead. We played this team twice. We never had the lead.
“We showed some resilience. We've come back four different times on them, and that's not easy to do.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
