Easton Cowan Scores Winning Goal, Stares Down Opposing Fans As London Knights Advance To Memorial Cup Final

Not only is Easton Cowan the Toronto Maple Leafs’ most promising forward prospect, he’s got a personality that shouldn’t take long to win the hearts of fans over.

After stealing headlines all season long with a franchise record-setting 36-game point streak to end the OHL season, one that extended to 42 games including the playoffs, Cowan has continued to prove his doubters wrong, if there are any left at this point. He finished the regular season with 34 goals and 96 points in 54 games. He didn’t slow down in the playoffs, scoring ten goals en route to a 34-point playoff run in 18 games, including a comical 15 points in four OHL finals games. In the latest installment of Cowan’s Linsanity run, he has five points through three Memorial Cup round-robin games and grabbed some headlines for an ice-cold performance in the game that punched their ticket to the Memorial Cup Final, where they’ll face the winner of Friday’s semi-final between the Spirit and the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Cowan scored the tie-breaking goal with less than two minutes to play, giving the Knights a 3-2 lead over the Saginaw Spirit. If the goal wasn’t cold enough, the celly certainly was.

The 19-year-old scored a similar goal earlier in the season and reacted the same way, with a fun staredown that was presumably directed at some opposing fans. It was reported afterwards that he was actually staring down his family, who travelled to see him play, but that doesn’t appear to be the case this time around. One, because you can see Spirit fans on the other side of the glass giving him a thumbs down. Two, because he did the exact same thing on the other side of the rink seconds later after scoring an empty net goal to ice the game.

Cowan, who was held to only two assists (yes, only two) in the first two round robin games, says that he

“I’m actually getting chills right now,” said Cowan. “It’s a dream come true. Like Barks [teammate Denver Barkey] said, I think all of us will be ready to go. A couple of days off will be nice, but we’re just gonna have fun with it and treat it like any other game.”

Regardless of what happens in Sunday’s Memorial Cup Final, Cowan has done more than enough to get Leafs fans excited about his debut. Since he’s too young to play in the American Hockey League (AHL) next season, his options are either to make the best of a nine-game tryout and crack the roster for the season, or head back to junior for one final year of development. Regardless of how those nine games play out, the 2023-24 season has been a gigantic step forward for the Leafs’ 2023 first-round pick.