Oliver Bonk’s power play goal at 3:29 of the third period wound up as the game-winning goal as the London Knights defeated the Kitchener Rangers 5-3 in the first game of their Western Conference semi-final series on Apr. 11 at Budweiser Gardens.
The game began with a parade of penalties as each team wound their way through their own pair of power plays during the opening 10 minutes without finding the back of the net.
A pair of even-strength goals accounted for the early scoring as first Luke Ellinas of the Rangers tipped a Hunter Brzustewicz shot past Michael Simpson at 14:41 of the opening period.
Less than three minutes later, Kaleb Lawrence of the Knights ripped a wrist shot through a defender’s legs and past Jackson Parsons and the game sat tied 1-1 heading to the second.
Brzustewicz set up Edward Sale to put Kitchener in front 2-1 with just under four minutes remaining in the middle period, but London responded quickly again as Isaiah George took a feed off a faceoff from Jacob Julien and wristed into the net to tie the game.
Denver Barkey gave the Knights their first lead of the game on a play that needed Rule 67.3 of the OHL rule book.
Max McCue attempted a wrap-around and as Parsons tried to push across his crease he kicked a goal post and knocked the net off in behind him. The puck hit a skate and went right to Barkey and Barkey shot the puck inside the peg holes on the ice where the net should have been.
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Rule 63.7 of the OHL Rule book states:
“In the event that the goal post is displaced, either deliberately or accidentally, by a defending player, prior to the puck crossing the goal line between the normal position of the goalposts, the referee may award a goal. In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions of a defending player, the attacking player must have an imminent scoring opportunity prior to the goal post being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.”
That gave London their first lead of the game just 1:29 into the third period, but it lasted just 29 seconds as Hunter Brzustewicz scored to tie things up again with his third point of the game.
The Knights went to the power play 20 seconds after that and like it was muscle memory, Easton Cowan found Jacob Julien and he fed Oliver Bonk in the “bumper” position in the slot and Bonk found a spot through Parsons and scored the eventual game-winner. Cowan’s assist gave him at least a point in 41 consecutive games.
London forward Sam O’Reilly was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for a hit on Kitchener defenceman Olivier Savard but the Knights killed the first three minutes and then Cowan drew a penalty to level the other two and all of that helped wind the time down in the third period.
Ellinas hit a goal post for the Rangers with just over one minute remaining and then Max McCue beat out an icing and scored an empty-net goal to finish the scoring.
London outshot Kitchener 31-25 and won 40 of 63 faceoffs.
Serious series history
London and Kitchener are meeting for the 13th time in their histories. The first matchup happened in 1973 when Dennis Maruk, Rick Green and Dennis Ververgaert of the Knights met Rick Chartraw, Dave Maloney and the Rangers. London won the series eight points to none.
In all, the Knights have won nine of the 12 post-season matchups. The teams have gone to seven games three times. London won the regular season series 4-1-1 in 2023-24.
Up next
Game 2 will take place at 4 p.m., on Saturday, April 13 at Budweiser Gardens before the series shifts to Kitchener for games 3 and 4 on Tuesday, April 15 and Thursday, April 17.
Coverage can be heard beginning 30 minutes before puck drop of each game on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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