The return of Kitchener Rangers captain Francesco Pinelli sparked Kitchener to a 5-1 win over the London Knights in Game 3 of their Western Conference semi-final series.
The Knights now lead the best-of-7 series, two games to one.
Pinelli was back in the Rangers lineup after serving a three-game suspension for a blindside hit on Oliver peer of the Windsor Spitfires.
The L.A. Kings prospect opened the scoring with 8.7 seconds left in the opening period as Pinelli scored on a short-handed breakaway to send a better-than sold-out crowd into a frenzy at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
The building holds 7131 fans. A total of 7350 tickets were sold for the game. The crowd included a large contingent of London fans.
Pinelli and the Rangers killed off 16 of 17 Windsor Spitfire power plays in the opening round of the OHL playoffs and scored four short-handed goals. Pinelli had two of them. He tied for the regular season lead with five short-handed goals over 60 games.
Kitchener forward Danny Zhilkin kept a puck in the Knights end on a Ranger power play and then fed Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Roman Schmidt for a one-timer and a 2-0 Kitchener lead at 5:44 of the second period.
London co-captain Sean McGurn set up Ryan Humphrey on a wrap-around at the 12:06 of the second. Humphrey connected for his fifth goal in seven games in the playoffs to get the Knights to within a goal.
Pinelli scored to make it 3-1 just over four minutes into the third period and just 29 seconds later the Rangers other Francesco fired home his fifth of the playoffs as Francesco Arcuri opened up a three-goal gap.
Brett Brochu was replaced in the London net by Zach Bowen after the fourth Kitchener goal.
Mitchell Martin and Ty Hollett added goals before the end of the game to complete the 6-1 score.
Rangers forward Matthew Sop had three assists.
Kitchener outshot London 37-31.
The Knights played without forward Max McCue who missed his third straight game with a non-COVID illness.
London defenceman Jackson Edward left the game in the second period after sustaining a cut to his face and he did not return.
As long as it isn’t Boston or Carolina against Colorado…
There will be a former London Knight or an area player in all National Hockey League playoff series in 2023, unless Boston meets the Carolina Hurricanes in the Western Conference final or the Bruins or Hurricanes tackle Colorado for the Stanley Cup. Every other team has at least one player who fits into one of those categories.
Toronto: Mitch Marner, John Tavares
Tampa Bay: Corey Perry, Patrick Maroon
Florida: Matthew Tkachuk
N.Y. Rangers: Patrick Kane
New Jersey: Jesper Bratt (drafted by the Knights and played one exhibition game)
N.Y. Islanders: Bo Horvat
Minnesota: Jacob Middleton
Dallas: Max Domi
Edmonton: Evan Bouchard
L.A. Kings: Drew Doughty
Vegas: Paul Cotter
Winnipeg: Dylan DeMelo
Seattle: Jared McCann
Up next
Game 4 between the Knights and Rangers will take place on Tuesday, Apr. 18 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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