Landon Sim and Denver Barkey each scored once and added an assist as the London Knights moved on to Round 2 of the OHL playoffs with a 3-2 win over the Flint Firebirds on Thursday at the Dort Financial Center in Michigan.
Isaiah George had two assists for the Knights, who held off a hard-charging Firebirds team that was playing for its post-season life without its captain Coulson Pitre, who re-aggravated an upper-body injury in Game 3.
Sim ended that game with an overtime winner and then started the scoring in Game 4 exactly 8:54 after the opening faceoff.
Easton Cowan raced into the Firebirds’ end to get to a loose puck in behind the Flint net and in one motion popped it out to Sim, who buried his second of the post-season for a 1-0 Knights lead through 20 minutes.
Cowan now has at least one point in 40 consecutive games when you combine the regular season and playoffs.
The Firebirds came out hard in the second period and finally found the tying goal as Simon Slavicek cut across the slot and snapped a shot into the London net at the 13:35 mark and the game sat tied going into the third period.
Denver Barkey got deep into the Firebirds’ zone and snuck a pass in front to Sam O’Reilly and O’Reilly buried his first of the post-season to make it 2-1.
A turnover in the London end not long after that goal allowed Daks Klinkhammer to walk into the slot and shoot but Michael Simpson came up with one of his 34 saves on the night.
Sim then fed Barkey for an empty-net goal to give the Knights a 3-1 lead with 1:17 remaining but before the London players could even think about taking a deep breath, Londoner Matthew Wang of Flint tightened the gap to 3-2.
The goals came nine seconds apart.
The Knights held from there and clinched the series.
Flint outshot London 36-31.
The Knights will play the winner of the series between the Kitchener Rangers and the Erie Otters.
Erie defeated the Rangers 5-3 in Game 4 to tie that series at two games apiece.
Gazizov at 20
The day before Ruslan Gazizov turned 20 years old he had a goal and three assists to help the Knights beat the Rangers 10-3. Gazizov blew out his candles the next day and kept on rolling after that. The winger from Omsk, Russia had 18 goals and 15 assists for 33 points in 25 games to finish out a regular season that saw Gazizov named Player of the Week in December and again in March.
First second-round series set
The Soo Greyhounds and Saginaw Spirit will meet in one of the two Western Conference semi-final series. The 2024 Memorial Cup hosts from Saginaw swept the Owen Sound Attack with a 5-1 win at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre at the same time that the Greyhounds were eliminating the Storm with a 5-1 victory in Guelph.
The Knights will await the winner of the Erie-Kitchener series.
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