As the London Knights left the ice at Budweiser Gardens on March 26 last year, no one was really saying anything.
The Knights’ players looked perplexed. They had the faces of tourists who can’t figure out how to find the tourist destination they so badly want to see.
London had just lost 2-0 to the Owen Sound Attack in Game 2 of their Western Conference quarter-final series. They were tied 1-1 through those first two games, but things hadn’t gone according to plan. This was the first round. What they were doing was supposed to be relatively easy. A tiebreaker had cost the Knights first place overall. The team that got that spot, the Erie Otters was having no trouble at all with Saginaw. London could have very easily been in that series.
Instead they were up against a well-oiled machine that was taking away their time and their space like a game of SNAKE on an old flip-phone.
Fans wandered onto the concourse with actual doubt in their minds.
It was conceivable that the London Knights might lose in the first round.
They boarded the team bus two days later to play Game 3 in Owen Sound and as the puck dropped, things actually became more difficult.
The Attack came at the Knights with everything they had. They put 22 shots at London goalie, Tyler Parsons in the first period alone and Parsons stopped all but one.
Still, Owen Sound led 1-0.
But somewhere between the end of that first period and the start of the second period, something changed. Even Parsons can’t put a finger on it. Even a year later.
“They taught us to be ready for every game,” Parsons says, remembering back. “We didn’t come out as ready as we needed to be early on, and we had to learn what that level needed to be.”
You can trace right back to period two of Game 3. That’s when London found that level.
Matthew Tkachuk scored on a power play. Then Aaron Berisha scored. Then Mitch Marner scored on a power play and the Knights had started their engines.
London won that game 5-1 and nearly rode from there to the highest point a major junior hockey team can hit.
They won the next game 8-5, lost back at home in overtime in Game 5 and then wrapped up the series in six games back in Owen Sound.
And didn’t lose again.
Eleven players who were on that playoff roster for the London Knights are still on the team right now.
They now find themselves approaching this year’s post season as defending Memorial Cup champions.
Knights’ assistant coach, Dylan Hunter admits, it does give the start of the series against Windsor a different feel.
“I think it’s good. It’s exciting because everyone wants to knock you off the top of the pedestal. You come in really trying to hammer home what worked from last year and what needs to be done right now.”
The series between London and Windsor will mark the first time that the defending Memorial Cup champions will meet the Memorial Cup hosts in the first round. In 1992, host Seattle played defending champion Spokane in the second round of the WHL playoffs.
London and Windsor split their season series right down the middle. Each team won all of its games on home ice. Each team won in overtime and each team won a game by a score of 4-1.
Unclaimed season tickets are now available for purchase, giving fans a chance at both upper and lower bowl seats. Fans can call 519-681-0800, visit the Knights’ Armoury off Talbot Street or go online to www.londonknights.com