A trio of third-period goals by the Erie Otters pushed the Knights to the brink of elimination for the fourth time in the 2017 OHL Playoffs.
Taylor Raddysh, Dylan Strome and Anthony Cirelli combined to give the Otters a 6-3 victory at the Erie Insurance Arena.
The loss puts the Knights into a position they got to know well in the first round. London fell behind three games to one against the Windsor Spitfires before battling back with three consecutive wins to take the series against the Memorial Cup hosts in seven games on home ice.
The Knights do not need a repeat of their three-peat in Round 1, but they will need to win a quick turnaround on Sunday at 6 p.m. at Budweiser Gardens before a potential Game 7 back at what could be a completely crazy atmosphere.
“It’s always hard when you lose a big game,” Knights’ assistant coach Rick Steadman said. “We have been in this situation before and we have such a great leadership group that we know they will come back and battle the way they have done so many times before.”
The teams polished off 14 periods of the series without solving a thing. They had each won two games and they had each scored three times in Game 5.
With the third period about to hit the midway mark, Taylor Raddysh picked up a London turnover at his own blue line and charged forward on a partial breakaway. London defenceman Victor Mete caught up to him and forced Raddysh to his backhand but Raddysh managed to find space through Tyler Parsons for the go-ahead goal and eventual game winner.
That re-ignited the mostly yellow-clad crowd that had been loud throughout nearly all of the game.
Dylan Strome sent the Erie fans into even more of a frenzy just over a minute later as he carried the puck in across the Knights’ blueline on the left side. As he appeared to be running out of room, Strome lifted a shot from a sharp-angle over the shoulder of Parsons to make it 6-3.
London killed off a late Otters power play, but before they could create any kind of chance the other way, Raddysh used his backhand again to get a puck in front to fellow Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Anthony Cirelli. Then he deked and scored the final goal of the game.
The three goals came over a span of 6:36 seconds and turned the game back Erie’s way after the Knights used an even faster trio of goals in the second period to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead their way.
The Otters brought a 2-0 lead into the second period after a knuckler of a shot by Red Wings; draft pick, Jordan Sambrook and Alex DeBrincat’s fifth of the post-season on his own rebound.
As he did in Game 4, Max Jones got the Knights on the board, sparking the deletion of a two-goal deficit.
Jones wired a wrist shot past Troy Timpano off a face-off to make it 2-1. Just 57 seconds later, Jones was at it again. He grabbed a puck on the right side of the offensive zone and fired shot side on Timpano to tie the game and a quieting crowd sat stunned.
It was silenced 13 seconds after the puck was dropped at centre ice as Janne Koukkanen sizzled home his eighth goal of the playoffs to put the Knights ahead, just as he had done in the second period of Game 4. Kuokkanen is now in a tie for second place in goals scored in the 2017 OHL post-season.
At that point, Kris Knoblauch elected to replace Timpano with Joseph Murdaca, who made 13 saves the rest 0f the way, earning his first win of the playoffs. In a comment to Victor Fernandes of the Erie Times-News after the game, Knoblauch stated that Timpano was still the Otters’ starting goalie and that he would likely make a decision on Sunday as to who would play Game 6.
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The goaltending switch seemed to settle the Otters down and unlike in Game 4, Erie tied the game. A turnover at the Erie blue line led to a two-on-one for the Otters. Warren Foegele took a shot that Parsons stopped, but Patrick Fellows knocked in the rebound to make it 3-3.
Both teams had breakaway chances before the end of the second period, but Jones was stopped by Murdaca and Cirelli’s chance was turned away by Parsons.
Power plays were non-factors once again. London was 0-for-3. The Otters were 0-for-5. There have been just two goals on the man advantage all series and Erie has both.
Final shots favoured the Otters, 39-23.
Game 6 will take place at Budweiser Gardens in London at 6 p.m. on Sunday. There are tickets available and they can be purchased at 519-681-0800 x1, at the Knights’ Armoury or online at http://www.londonknights.com
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