The London Knights scored eight times in their second straight game against the Guelph Storm, beating them 8-2 at Budweiser Gardens on Thursday night.
It was London’s first home game since Feb. 24.
With the playoffs only 11 days away, Knights defenceman Brandon Crawley admitted feeling the tension even before the puck dropped. “Everyone is just more dialed in,” he said. “Defensively, everyone is on their man – you’re looking up at bodies all the time, so there is more chipping it in and playing the body.”
Owen MacDonald got away from all bodies and opened the scoring 6:18 into the first period. MacDonald got down low in the Guelph zone and then played target practice, putting a puck into the tiniest of openings over the shoulder of former Knights goalie Liam Herbst.
London added another goal before the end of the first period as Olli Juolevi banked a puck off a skate for his ninth goal of the year.
Blocked shots, blocked passes and a few saves kept the score the same through over half of the second period.
Even back-to-back breakaways by Stevens and Stephens in the second half of the period failed to produce a goal. Liam Stevens of Guelph raced after a loose puck and got in on goal, but enough pressure from two chasing London defenders allowed Tyler Parsons to bat the puck away from him as it reached the London crease.
Moments later, a long pass found Mitchell Stephens of the Knights – he blazed across the blue line and cut left to right in front of Herbst and got a shot off that hit the inside of the post and landed on the legs of the Guelph goaltender.
London kept forcing and were eventually rewarded as Stephens found Victor Mete sneaking into the slot and Mete recorded his 15th goal of the season and 10th point in eight games since returning from injury.
Ten seconds after that, Sam Miletic took a pass from Leafs prospect J.J. Piccinich and made it 4-0 Knights at 14:01.
Piccinich lifted a goal of his own past Herbst before the end of the second period and London was ahead by five after 40 minutes.
James McEwan finally got the Storm on the scoreboard in the third. After Parsons put a toe on a Givani Smith chance on a breakaway, McEwan raced to the loose puck and lifted it high and in and it was 5-1 for the Knights.
London continued to put offensive pressure on the Guelph net, hitting the post three times in the first 11 minutes of the final period. Two of those posts came off shots by Dante Salituro.
Miletic ripped one between the posts at 11:35 for his second of the game and 33rd goal of the season to make it 6-1. Miletic ended the game with two goals and two assists.
Piccinich knocked in his 24th goal to stretch the Knights’ lead to 7-1 with less than five minutes to go. Evan Bouchard then scored for London with just over a minute left and Nick Deakin-Poot batted in a second Storm goal with even less than a minute left.
The Knights vastly outshot Guelph at 44-28.
The victory meant London swept all five of their games against the Storm this year. The teams will meet for the final time on Sunday afternoon in Guelph.
The Erie Otters remain four points ahead of the Knights for first overall in the OHL standings, beating Windsor 4-2.
Owen Sound stayed one point back of London, defeating the Niagara Ice Dogs 6-4 in St. Catharines. Londoner Nick Suzuki scored his 40th goal of the year into an empty net. Earlier in the evening, his brother Ryan celebrated an Alliance championship with the London Jr. Knights after they beat the Wolves in Waterloo, winning their final series 7-1 before the start of the OHL Cup on Tuesday.
London and Erie meet at Budweiser Gardens on Friday night. Broadcast time on AM 980 is 6:30 p.m.
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