Mitchell Stephens helped the London Knights end an unreal winning streak Saturday.
The 18-year-old centre scored a hat trick and the shootout winner as the Knights beat the Owen Sound Attack 7-6 at the Bayshore Community Centre. With that, the Attack's 15-game winning streak finally came to a close.
The win gives the Knights at least a temporary tie for the division lead in the OHL Midwest with the Erie Otters at 69 points each going into Saturday evening. The Attack remain in third place with 63 points.
It looked like the Attack would continue that winning streak in the first period of the game, starting off with three unanswered goals. Kevin Hancock put Owen Sound up first at 3:15, then Petrus Palmu scored two straight, the first at 11:07, the second at 14:22 to bring his season goal total to 29 and a 3-0 Owen Sound lead. Stephens, who was acquired by the Knights earlier this month from the Saginaw Spirit, scored his first goal on the power play less than two minutes before the intermission.
The Attack extended their lead to 5-1 in the second period on two consecutive goals by Jonah Gadjovich, both on the power play. Owen MacDonald narrowed the Knights lead to 5-2 with a goal at 8:17, his 13th of the year, and Stephens brought the Knights closer with his second goal of the night over five minutes later. Owen Sound regained a three goal lead when Ethan Szypula scored with 43 seconds remaining in the second frame.
The Knights began a furious comeback in the third period with three unanswered goals to tie the game and send it to overtime. Dante Salituro scored at 5:10 on the power play, Stephens completed the hat trick at 6:53 and J.J. Piccinich had the equalizer at 16:51. The overtime period was uneventful but Janne Kuokkanen and Stephens scored the shootout goals to give the Knights the victory. Maksim Sushko had the lone shootout score for Owen Sound.
The Knights move to Oshawa Sunday evening to take on the Generals, while the Attack welcome Kitchener for a matinee Sunday afternoon.
