London Knights champions again in 2025
The London Knights defeated the Oshawa Generals 5-2 on May 15 to win their second consecutive J. Ross Robertson Cup.
The victory completed an incredible run in which the Knights lost just once on their way to their sixth Ontario Hockey League title as a franchise.
It was the second straight year that London and Oshawa faced each other in the Championship series and the first time that had happened since 1955.
Kasper Halttunen led the way offensively for the third game in a row and was named the winner of the 99 Trophy as OHL Playoff MVP.
Halttunen had two goals in the clinching game.
Easton Cowan and Sam O’Reilly put up a goal and an assist while Sam Dickinson and Jacob Julien each had a pair of assists.
The Generals scored the first goal of the game as Andrew Gibson came in from the left point and snapped home his third goal of the OHL Championship and eighth of the post-season to make it 1-0.
A London power play midway through the first period did not result in a goal but appeared to settle the Knights and put them into a groove.
After a couple of close calls Julien blasted a shot that Jacob Oster stopped only to have the rebound roll free. Julien got the puck back for London and slid a pass to Dickinson to the left of the slot and he found Halttunen for Halttunen’s seventh goal in his last seven periods with only 20.1 seconds remaining on the clock and the teams went to their dressing rooms tied 1-1.
Dickinson put a shot on goal just under six minutes into the second period that O’Reilly deflected into the Oshawa net to give the Knights a 2-1 lead.
At 13:05 of the second period O’Reilly blasted a shot off the pad of Oster and a big rebound went right to Halttunen and he scored his ninth goal of the Championship series which tied him with Jonathan Cheechoo of the Belleville Bulls for most in the internet era.
A long review of a play lated in the period determined that a collision between O’Reilly and Generals forward Luke Torrance was not deliberate and play resumed with just over a minute remaining in the second period.
Oshawa got the puck into the London end and a bounce off a leg went right to Beckett Sennecke in the slot and he scored his 14th goal of the post season with 24.5 seconds remaining to tighten the score to 3-2 in favour of the Knights heading into the final 20 minutes.
The Generals came out pressing in the third and at one point had racked up 11 shots to the Knights one but a high flip was picked up by Blake Montgomery and he got to the net where Oster made two big saves only to have Landon Sim come crashing in where he batted the puck out of the air and in with 4:42 remaining in the game.
Exactly one minute later Easton Cowan scored into an empty net and Canada Life Place erupted and cheered to the finish.
Oshawa put up 18 shots in the third period and Austin Elliot of the Knights made 18 saves.
Denver Barkey played in his first game of the series since suffering a lower body injury in Game 1 against the Kitchener Rangers in the Western Conference finals.
The Generals outshot London 34-25.
Oshawa was 0-for-1 on the power play.
The Knights were 0-for-2.
London forward and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan has managed to do something that hasn’t been done since 2009 and 2010.
For a second consecutive season Cowan led the Ontario Hockey League playoffs in scoring.
The last player to accomplish that was Taylor Hall with the Windsor Spitfires when he put up 36 points in 2009 and then another 35 the very next season in helping the Spitfires to back-to-back Memorial Cup titles.
Cowan had 34 points in 18 games in 2024.
He had 39 points in 17 games in 2025.
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