Knights at Frontenacs – 2:00 p.m. – Kingston, Ontario
Broadcast: 1:30 p.m. – AM980 and http://player.am980.ca
“I want to hit the ice flying.” – Knights’ defenceman, Victor Mete on his return to the lineup.
Where the teams sit
Four days ago, the London Knights were preparing for a game that could have seen them move back into a tie for first place overall with the Erie Otters. Things didn’t work out the way London was hoping: they left Erie without that share of top spot in the OHL standings, but they were still securely in second.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday have flown past like they were coming out of a leaf blower, causing all kinds of commotion.
A loss to Owen Sound on Friday and more wins by the Otters, the Attack, the Greyhounds and the Spitfires have the top of the Western Conference looking much different.
Erie now has a six point lead on everyone. Next comes Sault Ste. Marie. Next, come the Knights and the Attack two back of the ‘Hounds and then Windsor just a point behind them.
There is a miniature three-point spread between second place and fifth with exactly one month to go in the regular season schedule.
The Kingston Frontenacs are over on the Eastern side of things where everything is slightly more spread out. Right now the Frontenacs and the Hamilton Bulldogs appear to be sitting on any one of the Thousand Islands situated right nearby their home in downtown Kingston. They appear destined for a first round matchup as the #4 and #5 seeds.
The Frontenacs have been to a shootout in each of their past two games, beating Mississauga in a Wednesday morning matchup and losing to the Petes at home on Friday.
The season series so far
The teams have met once this year and the game came back on Remembrance Day at Budweiser Gardens. Tyler Parsons earned his third shutout of a very young season, in his first game back after rehabbing a lower body injury. He made 30 stops and the Knights won 7-0. Parsons will miss today’s game with an upper body injury.
Sam Miletic led the way with a hat trick in the last meeting.
The match up
While Parsons remains out, the London will get one key reinforcement as Victor Mete returns to the lineup. He has been out since January 13, after taking a puck to the head against the Saginaw Spirit.
Mete says he has no plan to ease himself back in.
“I want to hit the ice flying. I’ve got to get back into it because this is a big game for us and then we play tomorrow and then have a three in three next week, so I want to be prepared for what is coming.”
Mete has missed 15 games.
The Knights will be without Max Jones against Kingston after he was given a five minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct on Friday night. Jones has been suspended pending a decision by the league that is expected to come early next week.
Kingston is a team that may not have as much to play for in the standings, but they will forecheck hard and try to make life miserable for you in your own zone.
The Frontenacs traded Warren Foegele to Erie at the trade deadline, getting Brett Neumann in return. They also picked up Cal Davis from the Niagara Ice Dogs.
London defenceman Mitch Vande Sompel and Kingston’s Stephen Desrocher were teammates in Oshawa when the Generals won the Memorial Cup in 2015.
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