Don’t tell the Knights and Storm that the playoffs are still more than six weeks away.
Only the fact that it ended in a shootout kept it obvious that the London Knights’ 4-3 victory over Guelph on Wednesday night at Budweiser Gardens that the game was not being in the middle of the second round of a post-season series.
Logan Mailloux and Tonio Stranges scored shootout goals for London and Brett Brochu kept the puck out of the Knight net as London earned a win in a game which they never led as they wore uniforms that harkened back to the earliest days of the team.
The two clubs kicked off their mid-week matchup by making sure that the other side had very little room to manoeuvre.
Through almost seven minutes of the opening period, London and Guelph had combined for one shot.
The Storm did not record their first shot on goal until the 13:52 mark of the game.
Things changed in the second period as just 50 seconds in, Guelph forward Jake Karabela grabbed a loose puck in front of the London net and got two gold star chances only to be denied twice by the undulating body of Brett Brochu, who found a way to get body parts in front of the puck.
Despite those saves the puck came back to the blue line and Luke Profaca wristed at the net where Karabela was still stationed and the rookie winger tipped it past Brochu for a 1-0 lead.
Just 29 seconds later the Knights tied it on a tip of their own as Max McCue deflected home an Ethan MacKinnon shot for his seventh goal of the year and it was 1-1 before two minutes had elapsed in the second period.
Valentin Zhugin put Guelph ahead 2-1 at the 8:04 mark as he skated into a crowd of throwback London sweaters and flung a shot at the Knight net and the puck found its way through for a 2-1 Storm lead.
London tied the game before the middle period ended as Stranges took a shot that Owen Bennett stopped only to have the rebound bound out to the top of the right circle where Luke Evangelista was waiting. The Knights captain faked a shot which drew to Storm players sprawling in his direction and then deked his way to the net before slipping in his 42nd goal in his 42nd game and the score was locked up 2-2 headed to the final 20 minutes.
Guelph jumped back in front for a third time when Danny Zhilkin became the beneficiary of a turnover as Sasha Pastujov found him in front of the net where he slid his 16th goal of the year through the legs of Brochu 5:17 in.
London kept pressing for a third game-tying goal and got it with 3:33 remaining in the third period as Stranges ripped in his 19th of the season on a beautiful feed from Cody Morgan.
The game went to an end-to-end overtime in which each team felt like they had far more chances than the 1-1 shot total would suggest.
The Storm nearly nabbed a win away from the Knights when Zhilkin skated into neutral ice with five seconds remaining and got all the way into the London zone and to the Knight net where he attempted a between-the-legs shot that Brochu stopped.
Two saves from Brochu in the shootout and goals from Stranges and Mailloux earned the Knights the win and an important second point against Guelph, which now lifts London eight points clear of the Storm for top spot in the Midwest Division with a game in hand.
The Storm outshot the Knights 29-25 and neither team scored a goal on the power play.
The game was London’s first on home ice in more than a week and kicked off a span of 15 games in 30 days.
Stranges officially a Star
London forward Tonio Stranges signed his first National Hockey League contract on March 1 with the Dallas Stars. Dallas selected Stranges in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft with the 123rd overall pick.
Stranges spent the 2020-21 season in the American Hockey League with the Stars’ farm team in Texas. He suffered a shoulder injury at rookie camp in September and missed time to start the season. the Plymouth, Mich., native shone in February with 20 points in 13 games.
He was named OHL Player of the Week on Feb. 21.
Marner completes phenomenal February
Former Knight Mitch Marner was named one of the NHL’s three stars of the month in February. Marner recorded 14 assists, more than any other player and also scored nine times, including a four-goal performance in a crazy 10-7 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Maple Leafs selected Marner fourth overall in 2015. He led London to a Memorial Cup championship less than a year later.
Up next
The Knights will kick off a home-and-home series with the Windsor Spitfires on Mar. 4 at 7:30 pm at Budweiser Gardens.
The two games will end the regular season series between the clubs. London has won four of the six meetings so far this year.
The Knights beat the Spitfires 5-1 in London on Feb. 4 on the back of 41 saves from Brett Brochu. Windsor returned the favour eight days later when Wyatt Johnston scored twice and added an assist for the Spitfires in a 5-2 victory over the Knights.
The pre-game show begins at 7 pm on Mar. 4 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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