Saginaw Spirit lose 5-3 at London before the home game tonight

SAGINAW — The Saginaw Spirit lost 5-3 at the London Knights on Friday at Canada Life Place. The weekend preview had this London trip as Friday’s game, with Erie at the Dow on Saturday.

The team recap said the first period ended 0-0, with Brady Knowling and London’s Brian Cooke each stopping eight shots. Evan Van Gorp opened the scoring at 5:55 of the second off a broken play that deflected off Spirit forward Dmitry Savin, from Brody Leet and Caleb Mitchell. Ryan Brown made it 2-0 at 9:35 on the power play, from Thomas Zocco and Juho Piiparinen. Shots were 19-19 through two periods.

Braidy Wassilyn got Saginaw on the board in the third, batting a pass out of the air after Nikita Klepov carried the zone. Levi Harper had the second assist. Klepov’s helper was his first game of the season, the recap said. Sawyer Schmidt tied it at 7:08, also batting the puck out of the air after a Cooke save, from Hudson Leenders and Gordei Khotkov, Schmidt’s second of the season. Carson Harmer put London back in front. Jacob Cloutier tied it at 3-3 on the power play, from Dima Zhilkin and Wassilyn. Harmer scored again at 17:27, from Jaxon Cover and Piiparinen. Cohen Bidgood scored into the empty net at 18:38, from Cooper McAslan. Final shots were 31-29 London. Saginaw was 1 for 1 on the power play. London was 1 for 2. Knowling stopped 26 of 30. Cooke stopped 26 of 29.

The league’s line on the same game

The Ontario Hockey League’s Friday recap said Harmer scored the winner against his former club, Piiparinen had three assists, and Cooke improved to 7-0 as London moved to 11-3-1-1. It listed the Spirit at 6-8-2-1 and winless in seven. Those standings are the league’s, not a line in the Spirit’s own scoring recap. Wassilyn had a goal and an assist in the team account. The league account said the same.

Tonight in Saginaw

The Spirit recap said the next game is Saturday, Nov. 7, against the Erie Otters at the Dow Event Center, with puck drop at 7:05 p.m. Wassilyn’s goal was in London, in a building the team called Canada Life Place, on a night the league said the Spirit stayed winless in seven. Tonight’s game is the home piece of the same weekend. The score that matters until 7:05 is 5-3, not a guess about Erie.

The photograph is the Dow. It does not show Friday’s game in London or Knowling’s 26 saves.

Sources:
Saginaw Spirit, “Wassilyn scores in return to London, Spirit fall 5-3,” Nov. 6, 2026, https://chl.ca/ohl-spirit/article/wassilyn-scores-in-return-to-london-spirit-fall-5-3/
Ontario Hockey League, “Friday OHL Highlights: Harmer has a night,” Nov. 6, 2026 (records, Harmer against his former club), https://chl.ca/ohl/article/friday-ohl-highlights-harmer-has-a-night/
Photo: MrMiscellanious, “Dow-Event-Center-Wendler-Arena.jpg”, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADow-Event-Center-Wendler-Arena.jpg

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Tags: Saginaw · Spirit · OHL · London Knights · Dow Event Center