KNIGHTS LOSE TO STEELHEADS
Loud crowds can never be underestimated. Quiet ones shouldn’t be either. The atmosphere inside the Hershey Centre on Sunday afternoon felt a lot like a mall long after Boxing Day sales have ended. There were people, but there wasn’t any urgent electricity in the air.
The London Knights weren’t able to get much fired up as the game went along and eventually fell 3-1 to the Steelheads.
From the start there were signs that it wasn’t going to be the Knights’ afternoon. Off the opening face-off, Alex Basso carried down the right wing and slapped a shot that missed the top corner of the Mississauga by inches and then rode a fish-flavoured carom around the boards to create an odd man rush for the trout-logoed Steelheads that saw Brett Foy cut hard to the net and barrel himself and the puck past London goalie Jake Patterson only 18 seconds in.
Jake Patterson was called on to make a couple of high-level stops the rest of the way through the period, including a nice leg save on a breakaway attempt by former Knight Jacob Jammes, but the score remained 1-0 at the end of one.
It stayed that way until the second period when Gemel Smith stripped a puck in centre and created a 2 on 1 that was stopped. The puck eventually went to the right side of the Steelheads’ zone. Smith found it there, made a move and snapped his first goal as a Knight past Spencer Martin in the Mississauga net.
That seemed to give the Knights a bunch of jump, however a Steelheads’ power play late in the 2nd clicked as Sean Day wristed a puck that trickled through the legs of Patterson and in.
Mississauga held on through two and then got a third goal from a player who they acquired at the trade deadline as Stefan LeBlanc slapped one off the post and in from the right point.
The Knights pulled the goalie with over two minutes left and created some excellent chances, but they couldn’t find space across the Steelheads’ goal line and wound up suffering their second loss of the weekend.
The Knights will host Sarnia on Friday and then play at home again on Saturday against Kitchener.
Mike Stubbs
NewsTalk 1290 CJBK – Play by Play Voice of the London Knights
