Just over five minutes later, 6:59 into the first, the Wildcats tied things up. This goal was another point shot, but it was scored off a nice deceptive release from Morin: he had the puck at the left point and held the puck and skated backwards towards the right point, masking the angle of release. The puck wobbled through the net-front area and deflected off a Knights defender and past netminder Austin Elliott to tie the game at 1-1.

5:11 into the second period, London retook the lead on a power play. Kasper Halttunen blasted a one-timer from Rousseau’s right that beat the netminder to make it 2-1 Knights.

But about seven minutes later, 12:22 into the second, the Wildcats tied things up again on a power play of their own. This time, Dyllan Gill blasted a point shot past Elliott to tie the game back up at 2-2.

And that’s how the game stayed for awhile, through the remainder of the second period and all of the third period.

4:23 into three-on-three overtime, the Knights sealed their victory. This time, Easton Cowan threw a puck towards the front of the net and it got past Moncton’s Preston Lounsbury and was redirected by his check, O’Reilly, past Rousseau to give London a 3-2 win. (Morin looked to be trying to challenge Cowan’s attack on the net, but the puck still got across to O’Reilly.)

Moncton never held a lead at any point during the game, and Rousseau, despite taking the loss, made 45 saves and held the Wildcats in for big stretches of the contest.

How’d Morin do?

Flames prospect Etienne Morin played a ton, serving on the top pairing on the left side beside Dylan MacKinnon. Morin scored the first Moncton goal and was credited with four shots on net. Among Moncton players, only Marcus Vidicek (with six shots) had more.

Morin was on the ice for all three even-strength goals scored in the game – two for London, one for Moncton.

Up next

London (1-0) is back in action on Sunday when they face the host Rimouski Oceanic (0-1). On Monday night there’s a clash of Flames prospects as Andrew Basha’s Medicine Hat Tigers (1-0) face Morin and Moncton (0-1).