London Knights lose to Spitfires in overtime, face 1st-round elimination

What a difference a year can make.

The London Knights are on the verge of elimination in the OHL playoffs, a year after they could do no wrong.

The Windsor Spitfires beat the London Knights 3-2 in overtime in Game 4 Thursday night to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series. Graham Knott scored the game winner 5:58 into the extra period.

Evan Bouchard and Janne Kuokkanen scored for London. The Knights lost despite carrying the play for large parts of the game, including the third period.

The Spitfires can advance to the second round with a victory in Game 5 Friday night.

The first-round drama comes a year after the Knights won 17 straight games in the playoffs en route to their second Memorial Cup title.

Two of Windsor’s three victories in the series have come in overtime. Knights assistant coach Dylan Hunter said at that point, anything can happen.

“Once you get to OT it’s a bounce here or there. After the first we came out harder, we had a lot more shots. We had them on their heels but once you get to OT it’s anybody’s game,” he said.

London’s only victory in the series came during Game 2 last Sunday. A win Friday night would force Game 6 Sunday in Windsor. The Knights are winless so far this season in the regular season and playoffs in Windsor.

Despite the loss, Hunter is happy with how the team played.

“I thought we did a lot of good things. Even the penalty kill, we had two against but they were off blocked shots, it was bad luck. I thought our special teams was really good, our even strength, so we’ve just got to keep chipping away,” he said.

The Knights haven’t lost in the first round of the playoffs since 2011 when Owen Sound beat them in six games.

This is unfamiliar territory for the Knights. Since Mark and Dale Hunter bought the franchise 17 years ago they have made the playoffs every year and have been eliminated in the first round only three times.

The series resumes Friday night in London. The pre-game show begins at 6:30 p.m. on AM980, am980.ca and on the Radioplayer app. Puck drop will be at 7:30 p.m.