KNIGHTS LOSE TO GREYHOUNDS IN SHOOTOUT

If the shootout was a 10-year old handing out birthday invitations, the London Knights wouldn’t get one.

For the fourth time this season, the Knights went beyond overtime and came up empty in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Greyhounds in Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday afternoon.

For a little while, the game needed a shootout about as much as a dentist needs a spatula.  The Knights built a 3-1 lead on what had to be rubbery legs.  They were playing their third game on the road in less than 48 hours in three different cities.  Many of them had probably seen the digital alarm clock strike 3 AM after they traveled from Saginaw to their hotel in the Soo.  Still, London showed very few signs that they were drained as they controlled play early.

The Knights limited the Greyhounds to few quality scoring chances in period one and got a pretty tip pass from C.J. Yakimovicz  to a flying Mitchell Marner right at centre that sent Marner blowing past anyone in red and in on goal.  Marner deked and scored his seventh goal of the season to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

The Greyhounds managed to tie the game on a 5 on 3 power play in the second as Bryan Moore banged a rebound behind Anthony Stolarz for his first in a Greyhound uniform.

Moore was acquired from Sarnia before the trade deadline.

The Knights recovered quickly as Max Domi displayed his deftness to put the Knights ahead.  Domi carried a puck deep into Greyhound territory and made like he was going to go behind the net for a possible wrap-around.  The threat was enough to get Soo goalie, matt Murray thinking about the other post.  Before disappearing completely behind the net, Domi tapped a puck off Murray and in.

 

Then Bo Horvat stretched the London lead as he came down the left side of the Greyhound zone and made an outside-inside move to get a defender leaning.  Horvat then toe-dragged the puck across the front of the net and as Murray lunged his left leg back against the post, Horvat converted a silky backhand up and over the 6’5 Penguins’ prospect. 

Things were happening the way London wanted them too. 

But before the period ended, the puck became a bouncing ball as it was centred and kabonged around in the Knights’ crease, evading everything in green and white and came to settle on the stick of Patrick Watling, who lifted it across the London goal line to tighten things up to a single goal. 

 

When leading after two periods, the Knights had not lost in regulation time and there was no hint that mark might be in jeopardy until the Greyhounds went to a man advantage. Eleven seconds after the puck dropped in the London end, Londoner Jared McCann wristed a high shot through traffic past Stolarz for a 3-3 tie. 

After that, Blake Speers benefitted from another bouncing puck to put Sault Ste. Marie ahead as he scored to make it 4-3 for the ‘Hounds.

Suddenly the clean sheet through the third with the lead was looking a little dusty.

The Knights would push for a tying goal, but they faced a large challenge before that chance came.  Bo Horvat, Brady Austin and Zach Bell killed all two minutes of a 5 on 3 that brought the clock down to just over two minutes remaining in regulation.  Then there was the Soo defence, who is full of big bodies who kept lining up along the blue line in a distorted game of Red Rover.

Bo Horvat finally broke through the line as he channelled some inner running back to get deep into the offensive zone.  Horvat seemed to sense Max Domi gliding into the play as he passed the puck through a haze of legs and sticks and onto the blade of Domi who slammed the puck into an open side at 19:48 for a 4-4 tie.

The Knights would get a bonus after that goal as Alex Gudbranson was called for tripping with just ticks left in regulation, giving the Knights a power play into overtime.

London created chances in the 4-on-3 but could not score and both teams went back and forth in OT after that, but the shootout was needed.

Jared McCann scored the only goal in the shootout and helped his current team earn the extra point against the home of his former minor hockey teams.

London now arrives home for three days of practice before hosting the Kitchener Rangers on Thursday and the Saginaw Spirit on Friday. 

Mike Stubbs
NewsTalk 1290 CJBK – Play by Play Voice for the London Knights