London Knights at Windsor Spitfires – 2 p.m. – WFCU Centre, Windsor, Ont.
Broadcast: 1:30 p.m. – AM980 and the Radioplayer app
(Windsor leads best-of-7 Western Conference quarter-final 3-2)
READ MORE: Knights battle their way to Game 6
The big question going into Game 6 is: Did the result of Game 5 change anything in the series?
If it did not, then get ready for one or two more games where the winner pulls one out with a late goal or hangs on by the skin of their teeth.
However, there is a good chance things have changed.
Pressure becomes a factor for both teams now.
The Knights felt it on Friday and survived.
Windsor was like a batter at the plate with three balls and no strikes. One wrong move by London and they were walking into the next round.
Swing and a miss.
As the 2017 Major League baseball season begins, they are now facing a 3-1 count.
Swing and miss on a clinching victory two more times and they are out.
London got a big test in Game 5 on Friday and found a way to pass. They didn’t ace the test, yet they did get through it and they are fine.
Windsor now gets to feel some heat.
You have heard or will hear about them being excited to have a chance to wrap up a series in front of their home fans and there is some truth to that.
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But that only tends to work when things start well in games.
If Windsor showed one thing at times during the regular season, it was the ability to be bothered by adversity.
Look back at late-season games against Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie.
What did they learn from those games?
They will need to apply that now.
London has learned that they have another level. They had to hit it in Game 5. They did.
If they can play to that same desperation again, they will give themselves every chance to return to Budweiser Gardens for a Game 7.
In baseball-ese: “Here comes the pitch.”
Series so far
The first two games had everything imaginable for a series that wasn’t taking place in 1996.
The teams came through the first two games with a split.
Windsor returned home to a less-than-full-house, but extended their home-ice winning streak over the Knights to five games this year with a 3-1 win in Game 4 and a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 5.
Both games had the Knights looking back on what had happened wondering what they could possibly do differently.
If fortunate bounces were statistics to that point, Windsor would be dominating the category.
Two of the Spitfires’ three goals in the third game came of deflections. One was a pass that tipped into the London net off a player who wasn’t even supposed to receive the puck. Another saw Knights’ defenceman, Nic Mattinen put his stick into a lane to block a shot only to have the puck hit it and fly right into the top corner.
Game 4 saw those bounces continue. The puck didn’t hit London sticks as much as it found Windsor ones.
Two power play goals saw pucks bounce right to players who had nice open sides to shoot at. The winner in overtime bounced over Brandon’s Crawley’s stick and settled down nicely for Graham Knott to go in and continue what his been a very successful string of games for him. He deked and potted the winner and the Spitfires were a win away from round two.
Bounces due tend to even out over time and Game 5 saw just that: a very even matchup.
Shots were about the same. Chances were about the same. The score was nearly the same.
The difference came down to the Knights’ penalty kill and goalie Tyler Parsons.
London went 6-for-6 against a very good Windsor power play and got split saves and glove saves and other remarkable saves from Parsons and hung on for a 2-1 victory to force Game 6.
The Spitfires came so close to tying it that Mikahail Sergachev’s shot (and he can shoot) sailed just wide and may not have even hit the boards behind the net before the final horn sounded.
READ MORE: Tyler Parsons: From a spark to a flame
The rest of the west
It has been solved.
Erie has been relaxing since Wednesday after scoring 29 goals in 4 games to knock out the Sarnia Sting in a sweep.
Owen Sound and the Greyhounds will tangle in round two. Both wrapped up their series’ in five.
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