Kasper Halttunen scored once and added two assists as the London Knights defeated the Kitchener Rangers 5-1 on Apr. 13 at Budweiser Gardens in Game 2 of their Western Conference semi-final series.
The victory continued the hot streak London has been on going back to the end of the regular season.
The Knights have now won 13 games in a row.
It also gave London a 2-0 series lead.
The scoring started early as Knights forward Max McCue got a puck back to Jackson Edward and his shot hit a leg and ricocheted into the radius of Kaleb Lawrence’s large reach and the overager from Ottawa backhanded a shot past Jackson Parsons of Kitchener for his fifth goal of the playoffs, and a 1-0 London lead just 40 seconds after the opening face-off.
The Rangers tied the game 1-1 just over six minutes later as Seattle Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf tapped in a rebound for his fifth goal of the post-season.
London went ahead again at the 11:31 mark of the first period when William Nicholl whacked a backhand toward the Kitchener net. The puck hit the six-foot-three-inch body of Kasper Halttunen and deflected in just as the net was coming off behind Parsons again. Unlike game one when the net was totally off its pegs on a Denver Barkey goal, this play was not reviewed and the Knights led 2-1 heading into the second period.
London tacked on two more goals in the second period.
First, Evan Van Gorp skated a puck into the Rangers zone and drew a man to him. That set up and give-and-go between Henry Brzustewicz and Halttunen and Halttunen picked up his second point of the game as he fed Brzustewicz for his first goal of the post-season to the left of the Kitchener net.
Then Halttunen and Easton Cowan assisted on a power play goal by Jacob Julien that gave Cowan at least one point in 42 consecutive games.
The Knights managed to hold their 4-1 lead through a 5-on-3 penalty kill later in the period that lasted one minute and 20 seconds. The Rangers had the second-best power play in the OHL playoffs during round one when it clicked at 36.8 per cent.
Kitchener has been held to 0-10 on the man advantage through the first two games.
London has a power play goal in each game so far and they nearly had two in game two.
Cowan buried a one-timer on a man advantage but the goal was called back on an offside.
London came back into the Ranger end right off the faceoff at centre ice and Jackson Edward blasted a puck past Parsons and that goal did make it 5-1 for the Knights and that’s where the scoring ended as many of the top scorers on both sides got some rest through the latter half of the third period.
London outshot Kitchener 25-24 on the afternoon as Michael Simpson picked up his sixth victory of the post-season. He made five saves on Rehkopf alone.
The Knights were 1-for-6 on the power play and they were 6/6 on the penalty kill.
London Knights add new faces in 2024 OHL Priority Selection
The Knights made 16 picks in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection held Apr. 12-13.
Here is the list of the players they chose:
1 – LC Logan Hawery – Barrie Jr. Colts
2 – LD Caleb Mitchell – Peterborough Petes U16
3 – RC Max Mews – OttawaMyers Automotive
4 – LW Jaxon Cover – York-Simcoe Express
5 – RC Jacob Monks – Little Caesar’s
5 – LC Jackson Halloran – York-Simcoe
5 – LC Matthew Airhart – Quinte Red Devils
6 – RD Jackson Taylor – Upper Canada Cyclones
7 – LC Eddie Hickson – Sun County Panthers
8 – LD Cody Wood – Whitby Wildcats
9 – G Seth Ronan – Halton Hurricanes
10- RC Seth Coomber – London Jr. Knights
11- LW Anthony Thomas-Maroon – St. Louis Blues AAA
*son of former Knight Patrick Maroon
12- G Sebastian Gatto – Leamington Flyers
14- LD William Janicek – Kitchener Jr Rangers
15- RW Logan Jackson – North Central Predators
Up next
The series will shift to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium for Game 3 on Tuesday, Apr. 16 and Game 4 on Thursday, Apr. 18.
London has gone 1-1-1 at the Aud this season.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m., for both games on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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