The London Knights exploded for six first period goals on their way to an 11-4 New Year’s Eve win in Sarnia.

There wasn’t much that went wrong in the first 20 minutes. The Knights only had nine shots in total. The puck just kept going past Sting goalie, Taylor Dupuis, who came into the game with the OHL’s best save percentage. Dupuis could not be faulted for the first four as C.J. Yakimowicz and Christian Dvorak scored 46 seconds apart to make it 2-0 London before the game was even four minutes old.

Then Michael McCarron found Aaron Berisha, Owen MacDonald set up Mitch Marner and Marner set up Dvorak for a second goal and it was 5-0 Knights.

Time ticked way down in period one, but before the buzzer, Victor Mete slid a puck through Dupuis for his second career goal and a 6-0 lead.

Sarnia’s best chance came when London defenceman Josh DeFarias had to drop a broken stick, allowing Alex Renaud to walk in alone. Knights’ goalie Michael Giugovaz made a solid save and London left the ice for the dressing room up by half a dozen through 20 minutes.

The Sting managed to solve Giugovaz in the second as they scored twice courtesy of Jakob Chychrun and Jake O’Donnell, who scored his first in the OHL.

The Knights’ offense kept churning as Mitch Marner scored his 30th from Dvorak and then Dvorak finished his hat trick by deking a defenceman and then Justin Fazio in the Sting net.

In between those goals, Victor Mete dropped a puck to Michael McCarron and he hammered a shot past Fazio.

The Knights led 9-2 through 40 minutes and only had 16 shots on goal.

Daniel Nikandrov scored on a power play in the third period to make the score 9-3.

Michael McCarron added his fifth point of the game on a gorgeous end-to-end rush that began with him hooking around behind his own net and zipping past and through everyone, before sliding a low shot between the legs of Fazio.

The Macomb, Michigan native completed the hat trick and earned his sixth point, snapping a power play goal past Fazio with under five minutes left.

McCarron ended the day with three goals and three assists. Dvorak had three goals and three assists as well. Marner had two goals and three assists. Added together, they combined for 17 points. Victor Mete had a multi-point afternoon with a goal and an assist.

Noah Bushnell batted a puck into the Knight net on a late Sting power play for the final goal of the game and an 11-4 final.

The win solidified London’s place in the CHL Rankings where they sit 10th this week.

The Knights and Sting will meet Friday at 7:30 at Budwesier Gardens to open their 2015 schedules. Then London will head for Barrie on Saturday night.

Mike Stubbs

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