MARNER’S HAT TRICK LIFTS KNIGHTS OVER SPITS
The London Knights extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-3 victory in Windsor on Saturday night.
You can point to a number of catalysts responsible for the London Knights’ play over the past week and a bit. Whatever you lean on, do not forget Mitch Marner and Max Domi. In those five games, Domi has put up 15 points and Marner has collected 14, including the first multi-goal game of his career, netting a hat trick.
The Knights got off to another quick start thanks to Marner. He took a beautiful feed from Matt Rupert and snapped a puck high over Alex Fotinos at the 4:12 mark of the first period to get the Knights on the board.
Before the end of the period, Marner struck again and again on another setup from Rupert. Christian Dvorak dished to Rupert on the left side of the Windsor end. Rupert played the puck off both of his skates and then zipped a psss in front to Marner for his 6th goal of the year.
Tyler Parsons was peppered at times in the opening period and came up big, at one point making three consecutive saves. He stopped 17 pucks in total.
The Knights started the second period much stingier in their own end, not surrendering a shot on goal for the first nine minutes and 31 seconds. The Knights scored shortly after that first Windsor shot as Max Domi got a pass from from Michael McCarron and then backhanded the puck through his own legs out front to C.J. Yakimowicz and the Pennsylvania native scored to put London ahead 3-0.
Some hockey people say that a 3-0 lead is the hardest one to keep and the Spitfires put some extra oomph into that theory, getting three goals in a span of 2:18. Veteran Chris Marchese popped two in 21 seconds and then Windsor captain, Trevor Murphy whapped home a bouncing puck in front and suddenly the score was 3-3.
Before the end of the period, the Knights managed to grab the lead back as Mitch Marner passed off coming in across the Spitfire blue line and went to the net. The puck bounced off a leg and Marner tapped it in for his first career hat trick and a 4-3 London lead through two periods.
London did their best to shut things down in the third period, got some solid saves from Parsons and survived a 6 on 4 Spitfire power play late to hang on. London has now won 7 of their last 8 games and is 8-2 in their past 10.
The Knights will host the Sudbury Wolves on Sunday at 2 PM. The Wolves ended a 13-game losing streak with a 7-2 win in Niagara on Saturday.
Mike Stubbs
NewsTalk 1290 CJBK
Play by Play Voice of the London Knights
