The Peterborough Petes held off a furious comeback attempt by the London Knights to win 5-3 and take a three games to one lead in the Ontario Hockey League Championship series.
London scored twice in the final 6:01 of the third period to get to within a goal but could not find the equalizer at the Peterborough Memorial Centre and now must win three straight. The Knights outshot the Petes 26-8 over the final 20 minutes of the game.
Peterborough will head to Budweiser Gardens on Friday, May 19 with a chance to capture their first OHL title since 2006.
London again scored early as Easton Cowan jumped on a puck as Petes goalie Michael Simpson hesitated with it for just a second in behind his net. Cowan walked in front and put the puck through Simpson as he tried to get reset in the Petes crease. The goal came 1:19 into the first period.
Knights co-captain Sean McGurn had scored 31 seconds into Game 3.
Cowan and Barkey had missed Game 3 of the series with a non-COVID illness.
Peterborough responded early in the second period with a goal that mirrored the start of the game. J.R. Avon took a pass from former Erie Otter Connor Lockhart and was able to deke across the London crease to knot things up 1-1 at the 1:19 mark.
Just under nine minutes later Zach Bowen made a big stop in front of the Knight net but the Petes grabbed the rebound and Brennan Othmann fed a pass to his left to Owen Beck and the Montreal Canadiens prospect buried his eighth of the post-season to put Peterborough in front for the first time in the game.
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Avon spun and scored his second of the night and ninth of the playoffs just 1:11 later and through 40 minutes the Petes led 3-1.
London killed off a Peterborough power play in the third period but just 17 seconds later Donovan McCoy put a puck past Bowen to make it 4-1 for the Petes.
The Knights went to the man advantage with 7:36 to go in regulation and London head coach Dale Hunter elected to pull goaltender Owen Willmore who had come in to replace Bowen after the fourth Petes goal.
Logan Mailloux set up Sam Dickinson for a one-timer from the right side of the Petes zone at 13:59 of the third period to make it 4-2 and the Knights began to feel some momentum. Ryan Winterton also picked up an assist on the play.
With 3:09 remaining, Winterton got a puck to Mailloux and this time he fed Denver Barkey at the right side of the Peterborough net and the second-year forward lifted in his tenth goal of the playoffs into the Petes net and London was within a goal of tying the game.
The Knights got the puck back into the Peterborough zone but Avery Hayes broke up a pass at the middle of the blue line and went down the ice on a breakaway and sealed the game with a goal into an empty net.
London outshot the Petes 53-34.
Peterborough captain Shawn Spearing dressed for the third game in a row but did not play a single shift. He has a broken jaw.
The Petes were without forwards Tommy Purdeller and Jonathan Melee who are out with injuries.
London was missing Ruslan Gazizov who missed Game 4 with an illness.
McGurn tops Tkachuk
Knights co-captain Sean McGurn scored 31 seconds into Game 3 of the OHL Championship series. According to statistician Geoffrey Brandow, that was the earliest goal in a game played in the OHL final since 1998. It was one second faster than Matthew Tkachuk’s game-opening goal in what ended up being a wild Game 3 between London and Niagara in 2016.
Tkachuk scored 32 seconds after the opening faceoff only to have the IceDogs respond with four straight goals to lead 4-1 with just over two and a half minutes remaining in the first period. A late goal by Cliff Pu with 53 seconds to go in the opening 20 minutes started a Knights comeback and the teams eventually ended up tied 5-5 at the end of regulation time. After a huge Tyler Parsons save very early into overtime London’s Owen MacDonald poked into the game winner.
London won Game 4 two nights later by a score of 1-0 to capture the fourth Ontario Hockey League championship in team history.
Up next
Game 5 will take place at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ont., on May 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Coverage will start at 7 p.m. on 980 CFPL, www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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