It was a game the London Knights had to win.
After goals from four different skaters and 32 saves from St. Thomas, Ont., native Owen Willmore, the OHL Championship series is headed back to Peterborough for a Game 6 on Sunday, May 21.
The Knights defeated the Petes 4-1 at Budweiser Gardens on Friday night.
Even before the game started, a major storyline emerged when London head coach Dale Hunter made the decision to give Owen Willmore his first OHL playoff start.
Hunter is always willing to make changes. At times he will do something in a game to “get something going” and with the Knights trailing Peterborough three games to one in the best-of-7 series, that is exactly what the move wound up doing.
However, the Petes didn’t make it easy.
Peterborough got on the board first with a power play goal at the 6:08 mark of the first period. An Owen Beck shot deflected off a skate right to Connor Lockhart and he quickly zipped the puck into an open side past London goalie Owen Willmore.
Petes goalie Michael Simpson stopped Easton Cowan on an early breakaway in Game 5 but it was a Cowan shot from the left side of the Peterborough zone that tied the game with 1:28 remaining in the opening period.
Ryan Humphrey made it 2-1 at 4:31 of the second period when Knights defenceman Jackson Edward poked a puck to Humphrey on the left side boards and the winger from Northville, Mich., turned and fired a puck over the shoulder of Simpson.
London co-captain Sean McGurn also picked up an assist on the play.
Denver Barkey gave the Knights a two-goal cushion at 16:55 of the second period when a Logan Mailloux shot hit a skate in front and went right to Barkey. The second-year forward lifted his 11th goal of the playoffs into the Peterborough net to send the game into the final 20 minutes with London ahead 3-1.
The Knights ran into some penalty trouble before the midway mark of the third period but killed off three consecutive minor penalties to maintain their two-goal lead and then Logan Mailloux rifled a puck down the ice from his own zone into the empty net, giving London the win they absolutely had to have.
Mailloux and Cowan each had a goal and an assist. Edward recorded two assists for London.
Peterborough’s Owen Beck received a five-minute major for slew-footing with 40 seconds to go in the game.
The Knights outshot the Petes 34-33.
Tkachuk ends sixth longest NHL overtime
Matthew Tkachuk ended his London Knights career with the most famous overtime goal in franchise history. Tkachuk scored at 7:49 of OT on May 29, 2016 in Red Deer, Alta, to win the Memorial Cup. Eleven days shy of the seven year anniversary of that goal, Tkachuk stripped a puck away from a pair of Carolina Hurricanes and snapped it into the top corner of the net just 13 seconds before the ‘Canes and his Florida Panthers would have needed quintuple overtime.
Asked about the game winner after the game Tkachuk called it, “My favourite one so far in my life.”
Then Tkachuk cracked a smile and added, “It was big to not let it go to five overtimes.”
The game was the sixth longest in NHL history.
Up next
Game 6 of the OHL Championship Series will take place at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on Sunday, May 21 at 7 p.m.
Coverage will begin at 6:30 on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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