In Game 1 of the OHL first-round series between London and Windsor, Mitchell Stephens scored a goal to tie the game late in the third. Windsor won in overtime.
In Game 2, Stephens scored the goal that won the game for the London Knights.
Stephens flipped his own rebound over Michael DiPietro at 11:32 on a London power play and the Knights went on to a 5-2 victory to tie the series 1-1.
Like they did in Game 1, London battled their way to a first-period lead, putting the puck to the Windsor net repeatedly. The first two goal-line plunges came up empty, but a third one on a centring pass by Cliff Pu produced what the Knights were looking for.
As the puck ping-ponged around Michael DiPietro in the Windsor net, a couple of London players started to celebrate, but then watched as the puck reappeared in the crease and the whacking continued.
When the whistle finally went, the play was reviewed for more than five minutes until it was ruled that those celebrating Knights were right. 1-0 London. Cliff Pu was given credit for his first goal in the 2017 post-season.
The first period also featured a pair of fights that came in succession as Adrian Carbonara threw punches with Hayden McCool and Cole Tymkin of London dropped gloves with Christiano DiGiacinto.
A mix-up without a fight led to the second Knights’ goal. Julius Nattinen and Max Jones were going to get off-setting minors when Friday’s hero, Jeremiah Addison took a run at Jones and broke his stick over the London forward on a cross-check. That landed Addison a five-minute major and a game misconduct and 11 seconds into the power play, Janne Kuokkanen found Olli Juolevi alone in front and he snapped a shot past DiPietro for a 2-0 Knights’ lead.
The Spitfires got a power-play goal of their own at 14:41 to get on the board as Logan Brown’s shot hit a London defender, hit Windsor forward, Aaron Luchuk, and bounced behind Tyler Parsons to make it 2-1.
Before the end of the period, the Spitfires tied it. After working the puck ’round and ’round and ’round the Knights’ zone, Mikhail Sergachev wristed a puck through all sorts of traffic in front of the London net and the game sat tied 2-2 through 40 minutes, just like it had on Friday night in the series opener.
Windsor took the lead early in the third period in Game 1. Although the lead went to London in Game 2, it didn’t come early. On the Knights’ second power play of the period, Mitchell Stephens fought his way to his own rebound in front and flipped the puck in to give London a 3-2 lead.
Things got rather hairy late as Windsor pressed to tie. With two broken sticks lying on the ice in the London end, Cliff Pu sprawled in front of a Mikhail Sergachev slap shot and took it off the body in front of the Knights’ net and then moments later, Pu got the puck out of his zone, into the Spitfires’ zone and fed Max Jones who scored into an empty net to make it 4-2.
Jones chased down Sergachev with the Windsor net still empty, stole the puck and scored his second empty-netter to seal a win and a 1-1 series tie.
Parsons made 29 saves in goal for London. DiPietro stopped 30 for the Spitfires.
Janne Kuokkanen had two assists for the Knights. That has him in an eight-way tie for London’s playoff scoring lead and shows just how tough goals have been to come by through the first two games between the teams.
Game 3 of the series happens on Tuesday in Windsor. The pre-game show begins at 6:30 p.m. on AM 980, am980.ca and on the Radioplayer app.
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