It hasn’t taken long for tensions to rise for the London Knights in the OHL playoffs.
It took only two games for the rival London Knights and Windsor Spitfires to develop some bad blood.
The Spitfires will be without game one hero Jeremiah Addison, he’s been suspended two games for cross-checking Max Jones in game two. Addison scored the game winner in overtime in the series opener on Friday.
While the Spitfires are losing a player, the Knights are adding one. Sam Miletic returns to London’s lineup after serving a two-game ban of his own. Knights head coach Dale Hunter told AM980 Miletic will be a big-time addition to the lineup.
“He can score goals, he’s our leading goal scorer, plus he also brings good defence and he’s a good skater, so he adds more speed to our team,” he said.
Miletic scored a team leading 37 goals for London this season.
The series resumes Tuesday night in Windsor tied at 1 game apiece. The pre-game show begins at 6:30 p.m. on AM980, am980.ca and on the Radioplayer app, puck drop will be at 7:05 p.m.
The first two games of the series have met the hype.
It’s the first time the reigning Memorial Cup champions have faced the Memorial Cup hosts in the first round of the playoffs. A series loss for either team would be seen as a failure by a pair of franchises that started the season with high hopes. The series may be only two games old, but it has had just about everything fans could want.
“Last game there were two fights right at the beginning of the game, there’s a lot of emotion running high. I think both teams don’t like each other and there’s a lot of passion out there,” said defenceman Brandon Crawley.
London and Windsor split the season series 3-3, the home team won every game. With Windsor’s victory in game one Friday night, London will have to win at least one game on the road to take the series.
According to Knights assistant coach Dylan Hunter, the key to a win on Tuesday will be the first 10 minutes.
“They’re going to come out flying, the first ten minutes will be us weathering the storm. They’ll (Windsor) want to come out and put their mark on it early,” Hunter said.
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The London Knights have also announced a block of tickets for Game 5 at Budweiser Gardens on Friday will go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m.