London has all the cliches on its side now

This shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

The surprise is that it took so long for the London Knights to get here. r

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Dust off all the old bromides, you’ll be able to use them now.

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"There’s no tomorrow."

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"Their backs are against the wall."

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"It’s win or go home." Oh, they’re already at home so it isn’t r that far to go.

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"It’s now or never."

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And the most famous of them all: "It’s do or die."

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OK, so there’s probably another 10 or 15 or so, all of them equally r obnoxious.

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Expect to hear them all as the Erie Otters have pushed the Knights to r within one game of elimination from these Ontario Hockey League playoffs. r

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The Otters defeated the Knights 8-1 in Game 5 of their best-of-seven r Western Conference semifinal series last night to take a 3-2 lead.

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When the playoffs began, most people believed the Knights would have r faced elimination long before now. The entered the playoffs as the not-so-elite r eighth-place team. But they’ve shocked the OHL with their elimination r of Plymouth and the rough ride they’ve given the Otters.

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There has been nothing cheap about their success. It has come through r enormous effort and will power.

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But there are times when no matter how hard one works, talent wins out. r

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The Knights were abysmal last night. How else can one explain a team r having four short-handed goals scored against it. The Otters — led by r a magnificent performance from Brad Boyes, with four highlight reel goals r — were in another class last night.

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The Knights came into the game smelling upset. They wound up merely r smelling the place out.

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Their remarkable feat of magic in Game 4, when they came back from a r 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 in overtime, left the Knights in good spirits. r

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It was a tough loss for the Otters, who not only blew a two-goal lead r but had to deal with the torment of having a potential game-winning goal, r scored by Boyes in the third period, not seen by the officials and goal r judge.

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Everyone was anxious to see how the Otters would react.

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Teams with aspirations for a Memorial Cup shake off adversity. This r Otter team aspires to a Memorial Cup.

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It took exactly 18 seconds for the Otters to send that message. Boyes r rifled a wrist shot behind goalie Chris Houle and the fight to survive r for the Knights was on.

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The Otters, in front of a loud sellout crowd of 5,540, tried to run r the Knights out of the building. The first period was the wildest of the r series. Bodies were strewn all over the ice, sticks and elbows flew in r all directions and the Otters stormed the Knights net. The Otters missed r at least three empty nets.

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Not only did the Knights survive, they managed to tie the game and emerged r from the bedlam 1-1.

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That was a miracle.

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But the only magic on this night would come from the Otters.

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"I never had any doubts about how they’d perform," Otters r coach Dave MacQueen sad. "When you look at the group of players we r have . . . they were upset about what happened Thursday."

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As for the Knights . . . the less said the better on this night.

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They played with the lack of discipline that often highlighted their r regular season. As the game progressed and it got further out of hand, r so did the chippiness.

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The Knights had to send the inevitable message. It’s often difficult r to understand what type of message anyone gets from a senseless line brawl r other than the one that says "Hey, we’re getting the snot kicked r out of us and we have to do something."

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With 1:37 left in the game, Knights Logan Hunter went after Erie’s Brian r Lee. That started a brawl that included Knights goalie Jan Chovan and r his Otters counterpart T. J. Aceti.

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Knights coach Dale Hunter was asked what started it.

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"I dunno," he said.

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What he does know is that it takes four games to win a series and in r these playoffs, the Knights have made a habit of coming up with the unexpected. r

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After last night, that’s exactly what a win would be.