Knights vs Attack
7:30 p.m. Budweiser Gardens
Broadcast: 6:30 p.m. – AM 980 and http://player.am980.com
We thought we were giving up too many chances, so we have been playing a little harder on (defense).” – Knights’ Assistant Coach, Dylan Hunter
Where the teams sit
The Knights are tied for first overall in the OHL standings with the Erie Otters. Both London and Erie have 20 games remaining.
London is coming off a 4-0 win over Oshawa and a 6-1 victory over Kitchener. The Knights held a 1-0 lead through the first 35 minutes of both games.
Liam Foudy opened the scoring on Wednesday with a laser of a shot to the top corner of the net. Foudy admits he doesn’t score many like that. Most of the goals he has scored have come off dekes. That may start to change.
The Owen Sound Attack had their 15-game winning streak ended by the London Knights last Saturday, but bounced back to beat the Rangers 6-4 the very next day. Saturday still stings because Owen Sound was ahead 5-1 in the game and 6-3 at the end of the second period.
Other than the shootout loss, the unique thing about the Attack’s two games last weekend was the number of goals they surrendered. Owen Sound had allowed 21 goals total during the 15-game winning streak and the most they had given up during a game in that time was three. That only happened once.
The Knights and Kitchener scored 10 goals in regulation in two games and Michael McNiven was in net for all of them.
The season series so far
If you like shootouts, the combination of these two teams will make you happy.
They have played three games this season and all three have ended in shootouts.
The Attack won the first two by scores of 2-1 and 3-2. The Knights ended their 0-for-4 shootout run with their 7-6 victory in the last meeting. Mitchell Stephens scored the winner. He says he had one thing on his mind when he picked up the puck at centre ice.
“Don’t miss the net.”
Outlook
The Attack started this year in a struggle to find secondary scoring. Londoner Nick Suzuki and Petrus Palmu have been incredibly consistent contributors from the start, but guys like Kevin Hancock and Jonah Gadjovich have really picked up any slack. Gadjovich had two goals in his first 10 games and now has 27. He can score off the rush or make himself a big body presence in front of the net. Hancock started slowly as well, but has had three points streaks of seven games or more since.
What hasn’t been handled by added scoring has been taken care of by McNiven, who is having a career year. He made 68 saves in the first two games against London, putting in some excellent performances. It was “third time’s a charm” for the Knights as they scored six times against him.
The Knights have been putting more focus on defence in their past two games and it has been working. London blanked Oshawa 4-0 on Sunday night and then limited Kitchener to just 23 shots on Wednesday.
Knights’ assistant coach, Dylan Hunter says, “We have the philosophy of changing throughout the year so that when the time comes, you can switch back and forth (between attacking and defending) seamlessly.”
The flu that was one of the main contributors in London missing eight regulars against Owen Sound has worked its way through the room. Victor Mete and Adrian Carbonara have been skating this week, but no indication has been made that they are ready for game action just yet. Both are injured.
One more story…
Robert Thomas and Alex Formenton of the London Knights were watching the Owen Sound-London game with Nick Suzuki and Markus Phillips of the Attack as the players prepared to play in the Top Prospects game in Quebec City.
Thomas says when it was 5-1 for Owen Sound, he was hearing about it from Suzuki and Phillips. Thomas left to go and do a TV interview (which can take some time). When he walked back into the room, the game was over and the Knights had won. As nonchalantly as possible, he walked past the Owen Sound pair, uttering, “Tough one, boys,” on his way by.