London Knights at Flint Firebirds – 7:00 p.m. – Dort Federal Event Center, Flint, MI.
Broadcast: 6:30 p.m. – AM980 and the Radioplayer app
Here is the Western Conference playoff picture with two days left on the schedule:
Erie: Clinch first overall with 1 point in remaining game at home to Guelph
Otters’ magic number over the Attack is 1 (Erie owns tiebreaker)
Sault Ste. Marie: Have clinched the West Division and the second seed in the Western Conference
Owen Sound: Must win both remaining games vs Kitchener and at Guelph and have Erie lose to the Rangers to finish first overall. They are the only team with a chance to catch the Otters.
Lead the Knights by one point for the third seed. Trail Erie by 3 points for first overall.
London: Will finish with the third or fourth seed. Trail the Attack by one point for third and must be two points better than the Attack over their final two games as Owen Sound owns the tiebreaker.
Windsor: Owns the fifth seed.
Kitchener: Owns the sixth seed.
Flint: Owns the seventh seed.
Sarnia: Owns the eighth seed.
Saginaw: Will draft fourth overall in the OHL Priority Selection.
Guelph: Will draft second overall behind Barrie in OHL Priority Selection.
Knights vs Firebirds
This game completes a home-and-home and the regular-season series between the teams. London won the two games at Budweiser Gardens by a combined 13-5 score. In Flint on Feb. 8, the Knights had to fight back twice and were within a disallowed goal of being down 4-1.
The game went to a shootout, with Mitchell Stephens scoring to win.
You might think Flint has very little to play for. The team knows it will finish seventh in the Western Conference and they know they will meet the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the first round. Still, this is their final game of the regular season and the Firebirds’ last win came on March 3. They are winless in six and everyone wants to be peaking going into the playoffs. Another loss would have Flint in a valley heading into Game 1 in Sault Ste. Marie.
Fan support has been growing during the Firebirds’ second year.
Their crowd can get loud and can keep the home side in the game. Flint has 19 wins on home ice, compared with just 13 on the road.
The London Knights have won four of their past five and are unbeaten when they play with a full lineup. This season, they have only done that twice: Tuesday in Erie and last night at home to Flint.
Max Jones is coming off a two-goal game that included a between-the-legs goal which will live on replay reels forever.
Where the Knights finish (third or fourth) is out of their hands. They are simply looking to stay in a groove heading into their first-round series against Windsor or Kitchener.
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