When you get a chance to close out an opponent, you need to do everything you can to make that happen.
The London Knights put that sentiment to the test in a 5-2 victory in Windsor on Thursday night to close out their first-round series with the Spitfires in four straight games.
Another old adage says that your leaders have to lead to bring success in the post-season.
In their series-clinching game, every London player who scored a goal or picked up a point was a veteran.
Alex Formenton had four assists to push him into the playoff scoring lead past teammate Evan Bouchard and Nate Schnarr of the Guelph Storm. Formenton had two goals and 11 assists in four games against Windsor.
Billy Moskal had a goal and an assist in Game 4 against the Spitfires, and Adam Boqvist scored two more goals. The Chicago Blackhawks prospect may want to find a way to play another game in Windsor: he scored six goals in the two games played at the WFCU Centre.
Completing the sweep will give the Knights a chance to get set for what comes next. London is a Sault Ste. Marie victory away from matching up with the Guelph Storm in Round 2.
London assistant coach Rick Steadman says the way the series went against the Spitfires definitely works into the Knights’ favour.
The Knights had the best penalty kill in the OHL during the regular season. The special teams’ attention shifted to their power play in the first round. London had a 53.8 per cent success rate with the man advantage.
Steadman believes the credit belongs to the way the players executed.
London’s power play scored seven goals in 13 chances. Their penalty kill against the Spitfires wasn’t too shabby, either: the Knights killed off Windsor chances 93.3 per cent of the time.
Jordan Kooy earned his fourth win of the playoffs. He made 23 saves.
Kari Piiroinen made 24 in net for Windsor.
The goals
Boqvist kicked off the scoring with his fifth goal in three periods and 97 seconds. With London on a power play, Boqvist took a pass on the right side of the Windsor end and wristed a shot in to make it 1-0 for the Knights.
Windsor tied the game at 13:54 when Tyler Angle banged in a rebound in front, but the Knights grabbed the lead back just under four minutes later as Will Lochead cut across the Spitfires’ end from right to left and buried a snap shot to give London a 2-1 advantage through 20 minutes.
Kevin Hancock put the Knights up 3-1 as he knocked a puck out of the air that Piiroinen tried to clear out of his own end after he had left his crease to get it. Hancock shot the puck into the empty net for his first goal of the post-season.
The Spitfires closed the gap to 3-2 on a wrist shot by Connor Corcoran and then, before the end of the period, Boqvist struck again for his sixth goal in five periods, sending the Knights to the third period ahead 4-2.
The Knights blanked Windsor in the third period and limited them to four shots. Billy Moskal scored into an empty net with 1:14 to go to close the scoring.
And then there were 11
Three more teams saw their seasons end on Thursday in the OHL playoffs.
Along with Windsor, the Sarnia Sting and the Kitchener Rangers also went down in four games.
Guelph took a one-goal lead over Kitchener into the third period and fired home three exclamation points for a 5-1 victory and a sweep of their closest geographic rival.
Sarnia had a 4-2 lead over Saginaw on home ice, but the Spirit battled back to tie the game and send it to overtime, where they got the game-winning and series-winning goal from Blade Jenkins to complete a sweep.
The first two teams were knocked out on Wednesday night as the Mississauga Steelheads and the defending champion Hamilton Bulldogs began their summers.
Hamilton was forced to face the Ottawa 67’s, the No. 1 team in the league during the regular season, and fell four straight as Ottawa warmed up their offence with 23 goals in four straight wins.
Mississauga couldn’t get their offence going thanks to Wolves goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Sudbury held the Steelheads to eight goals in four games. The series was the first sweep by the Wolves since they beat Ottawa 4-0 in 2011.
Still going
The Soo Greyhounds and the Owen Sound Attack are all that is left in the West in Round 1. Sault Ste. Marie is on a bit of a roll, though. After dropping Game 1 in overtime at home, the ‘Hounds have reeled off three consecutive victories, including two in Owen Sound in the often-unfriendly confines of the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre. Sault Ste. Marie will have a chance to clinch the series on Friday night at home.
The Niagara IceDogs didn’t lose Game 1 of their series with North Bay, but they did lose Game 2. Since then, they have had things under control and also lead three games to one. Niagara goalie Stephen Dhillon has two shutouts in the three IceDogs wins. They will have a chance to advance to Round 2 on Friday at home.
Oshawa overcame an early Peterborough lead in Game 4 of their series with the Petes and got two goals from Anthony Salinitri in a 5-2 win. The Generals lead that series 3-1. Game 5 will take place Saturday night in Oshawa.
Up next
The Knights will wait and see who they face next. The most likely opponent is Guelph. That becomes guaranteed if Sault Ste. Marie knocks out Owen Sound. Right now, the Greyhounds lead the Attack three games to one. Game 5 is Friday night in Sault Ste. Marie.
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