Marco Mignosa scored twice and logged two assists as the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds defeated the London Knights 4-0 to win their first round playoff series on Saturday at Canada Life Place.

Carter George made 25 saves in goal for Sault Ste. Marie for his first career playoff shutout.

The Greyhounds got off a quick start as an icing call brought a faceoff into the London end. Brady Martin found Marco Mignosa, who fired home his third goal of the series at the 2:14 mark of the first period.

Chase Reid made it 2-0 for Sault Ste. Marie with his second goal of the playoffs, which came one second after a Greyhound power play ended.

The Knights pressed hard in the second period but could not find a hole in Sault Ste. Marie’s netminder.

At the other end of the ice, Brady Martin found Marco Mignosa for a second time, leading to Mignosa’s second goal of the night, which put the Greyhounds ahead 3-0 after 40 minutes of play.

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Brady Martin scored on a third period power play for Sault Ste. Marie to finish the scoring as Mignosa picked up his fourth point of the night.

The Greyhounds outshot the Knights 27-25.

London was 0-for-6 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill.

The loss ended the careers of overagers Jesse Nurmi, Braiden Clark and Kaden Hawkins.

Clark missed the game with an upper body injury, as did Knights defenceman Linus Funck.

London goaltender Seb Gatto did not dress due to a lower body injury.

Will Nicholl signs entry-level deal with Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers selected Will Nicholl of the London Knights in the seventh round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.

Nicholl was selected 196th overall that year. The majority of players  drafted ahead of him — 118 in total —have yet to sign their first deal.

Nicholl is a two-time Ontario Hockey League champion and a Memorial Cup champion. If there was an award for most positive player in hockey you would see Nicholl as a nominee, too.

He was honoured at this season’s London Knights awards ceremony as the 2025-26 Player’s Player, which is chosen by a player’s teammates.

Nicholl missed 36 games this year while recovering from off-season surgery but still managed to score 15 goals and 26 points.

Nicholl will be eligible to join the American Hockey League’s Bakersfield Condors at the conclusion of his season in London.

The Condors are captained by former Knight Seth Griffith.

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Ryan Brown recorded a hat trick as the London Knights defeated the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 4-1 to force a fifth game in the Western Conference quarterfinal series.

After back-to-back overtime victories by the Greyhounds gave them a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, London fought their way through the second game in as many days down two veteran players, as Braiden Clark and Linus Funck both missed Game 4 with upper-body injuries.

Quinn McKenzie of Sault Ste. Marie scored the first goal of the game at 6:55 of the opening period as he wrapped the puck around the London net and got it by Aleksei Medvedev.

Medvedev was making his first playoff start after making 36 appearances for the Knights in the regular season.

A big second period from London put them in front 2-1 as they killed off four Greyhound power plays and got goals from Jacob Vandeven and Ryan Brown.

Vandeven came out of the penalty box, took a pass from Will Nicholl and went in on a two-on-one with Nicholl, where Vandeven snapped in his first Ontario Hockey League goal at 6:51.

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Brown scored on a Knights power play at the 13:41 mark as London got the puck to the Sault Ste. Marie net, then batted and whacked away until it popped to Brown at the right post. Brown put the puck in for his first goal of the post-season and a London lead going into the final 20 minutes.

Brown scored on a breakaway at 14:58 of the third period to make it 3-1 thanks to a high flip pass from Caleb Mitchell, then finished the scoring into an empty net with 3:03 to go in the game.

Medvedev made 25 saves for his first playoff win. Will Nicholl had two assists on the night.

Each team finished the game with 26 shots on goal.

The Knights were 1-for-4 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.

London Jr. Knights advance at 2026 OHL Cup

The London Jr. Knights ran into a hot goaltender in their first game at this year’s OHL Cup but quickly rebounded in their round robin and racked up the necessary wins to advance to the quarterfinals on April 2.

Don Mills squeaked out a 2-1 win over London on March 30 but then beat Thunder Bay 10-1, knocked off TPH Academy 6-4 and blasted Barrie 8-1.

The Jr. Knights are coached by former London Knights captain Danny Syvrey and feature top prospects for the 2026 OHL Priority Selection in Drew Bate and Ryan Beaulieu.

Beaulieu’s father, Josh, was also a part of the Team of the Century with Syvrey in 2004-05.

Next up

Game 5 will take place in London at Canada Life Place on Good Friday, April 3, at 7 p.m.

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

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After finishing a regular season that saw them record 40 wins for a league-record 17th time since 2000 the London Knights celebrated the year’s accomplishments by handing out their team awards on Sunday, March 22 at Canada Life Place.

London will face the Soo Greyhounds in Round 1 of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.

It will be the first time since 2007 that the clubs have met in the post season. That series was a wild one that the Knights took in seven games, led by Patrick Kane and Sam Gagner.

London and Sault Ste. Marie have met just four times in the playoffs in their history and the Knights have won every series.

The full schedule can be found below.

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2025-26 London Knights award winners

Peter Guertin Longshot Award: Sebastian Gatto

Most Improved Player: Andoni Fimis

3 Star Award: Jaxon Cover

Scholastic Player of the Year: Braidy Wassylin

Abakar Kazbekov Hardest Working Player: Evan Van Gorp

Player’s Player: William Nicholl

Fan Favourite: Maksim Sokolovskii

Don Brankley Community Service Award: Rene Van Bommel

Intensity Award: Cohen Bidgood

Rookie of the Year: Jaxon Cover

Sportsmanship and Ability Award: William Nicholl

Best Defensive Forward: Braiden Clark

Best Defenceman: Henry Brzustewicz

Heart Trophy: Jesse Nurmi

Richard Hunter Memorial Award for Leading Scorer: Ryan Brown

MVP: Henry Brzustewicz

First round schedule for London Knights vs Sault Ste. Marie:

Game 1 – Friday, March 27 at London, 7 p.m.
Game 2 – Sunday, March 29 at London, 6 p.m.
Game 3 – Tuesday, March 31 at Sault Ste. Marie, 8:07 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, April 1 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.
Game 5 – Friday, April 3 at London, 7 p.m.*
Game 6 – Sunday, April 5 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.*
Game 7 – Tuesday, April 7 at London, 7 p.m.*

*if necessary

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Henry Brzustewicz scored a goal, added two assists and then scored the shootout winner for the London Knights as they edged the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 4-3 on Friday, Feb. 13, at Canada Life Place.

The victory moved London to within two points of Sault Ste. Marie for home ice advantage in what could easily be a first-round matchup between the two teams.

The Knights have 14 games remaining on their schedule.

The Greyhounds have 15 left.

Veteran forward Justin Cloutier created the first goal of the game as he worked his way back to the middle of the London blue line and then flung a puck toward the net, which Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Travis Hayes tipped in to make it 1-0 Sault Ste. Marie at the 9:41 mark of the opening period.

Jaxon Cover tied the game with his 16th goal of the season on his 18th birthday as he hammered home a Jesse Nurmi pass on a 5-on-3 power play for the Knights at 18:08.

The assist extended Nurmi’s point streak to 10 games.

Brzustewicz was also in on the play. Brzustewicz has points in 12 of his past 13 games.

Another 5-on-3 power play for London produced the go-ahead goal by Brzustewicz at 6:10 of the second period as the L.A. Kings first rounder notched his 16th of the year.

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Ryan Brown assisted on the goal to extend his point streak to 11 games. Brown has the longest active point streak in the OHL at the moment.

Before the end of the middle period, Brzustewicz had his third point of the game as he and Cover combined to get the puck to Caleb Mitchell and his wrist shot beat Carter George at 13:59. With that, it was 3-1 for the Knights heading into the final 20 minutes.

The Greyhounds closed the gap to 3-2 just over seven minutes into the third period as a high flip was knocked out of the air by a Sault Ste. Marie stick. However, it hit a London player and went right to Jeremy Martin and Martin scored.

Martin scored again a little more than five minutes later on a Greyhounds man advantage to tie the game 3-3 and it eventually went to overtime.

Those five minutes produced four Knights shots and 2 Sault Ste. Marie shots but no goals.

That set the stage for two big saves from Seb Gatto and London goals by Brown and Brzustewicz in the shootout.

Will Nicholl of the Knights was 25-for-33 in faceoffs on the night.

London won three of the four games between the teams this year. Two of those victories came in shootouts.

The Greyhounds outshot the Knights 38-37.

London was 2-for-7 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

Londoners and London Knights helping to propel Canada at the Olympics

Nick Suzuki and Bo Horvat have scored goals. Mitch Marner has two assists and Drew Doughty has been a rock on defence for Canada’s Men’s Hockey team at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.

The four players make up just under a fifth of the entire roster that is looking for gold as NHLers return to the Games for the first time since 2014.

Canada is 2-0 so far after wins over Czechia and Switzerland. Canada will face France at 10:40 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15.

Marner and Horvat both played for the Knights. Horvat is also from Rodney, Ont., while Suzuki and Doughty are from London. Doughty and Sidney Crosby are each trying to win their third Olympic Gold medal.

Up next

The Knights will host the Owen Sound Attack on Family Day afternoon at 2 p.m., at Canada Life Place.

All 20 teams in the Ontario Hockey League are in action that day and nine of the ten games will begin at 2 p.m.

Coverage of London and Owen Sound will begin at 1:30 p.m., on 980 CCFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

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