Sports Notes: Knights wrap regular season Saturday, London Nationals stay alive, Falcons going for gold

The London Knights enter their 68th and final regular season game Saturday night needing just one point to secure home ice advantage in the opening round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.

London sits in fourth place at 85 points, one ahead of Sault Ste. Marie.

The Knights play at Flint Saturday at 7 p.m. and if they fail to record a point, could still finish fourth if the Greyhounds don’t win against Windsor Sunday.

On Friday, the Knights honoured overaged players Kaeden Hawkins, Braiden Clark and Jesse Nurmi prior to the game, and then goaltender Sebastian Gatto stopped 40 shots and then three more in the shootout as the Knights won 3-2 over Windsor.

Jaxon Cover scored the shootout winner, with Maxim Solokovskii and William Nicholl adding goals in regulation time.

Despite trading away top talent at the deadline in January, the Knights win Friday gave them another 40-win season.

GOHL

In the Greater Ontario Hockey League, the London Nationals are hoping to push the first-round series to seven games Sunday night.

The Nationals came up with a clutch 5-4 win on the road in Stratford Friday night to bring them back home to Western Fair District Sunday for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop. Austin Pomerleau scored twice and added an assist in a game where they were facing elimination.

Elsewhere, the top-seeded Chatham Maroons swept a young St. Thomas Stars team 4-0 in round one and the St. Marys Lincolns eliminated Strathroy 4-1 with a 2-0 shutout Friday.

CCAA

Saturday night the Fanshawe Falcons women’s basketball team will look for the first gold medal in program history.

The women will take on the VIU Mariners at 7:30 p.m. in the final in Montreal.

Centre Ashlyn Anderson has averaged 22.5 ppg, 22.5 rebounds and 8 blocks in Fanshawe’s two wins to help the team advance to the final.