STRONG START FOR THE KNIGHTS
Managing emotions is a key to being successful at an event as high-adrenaline as the MasterCard Memorial Cup.
The Knights did exactly that in a 6-2 win over the host Red Deer Rebels to open the 2016 edition of the tournament.
Mitch Marner led all scorers with two goals and three assists and his roommate and linemate, Christian Dvorak had two of each. Marner was just one-point shy of the tournament record.
As the teams hit the ice for the first game, there was definite energy and emotion in the building. The early going was highlighted by some big hits and by some early pressure from the Rebels that forced Tyler Parsons to make a couple of excellent stops.
The Knights hung in against the rambunctious Rebel forecheck, kept their poise and then got an opportunity when Red Deer alternate captain, Haydn Fleury failed to control his emotions.
As a scrum was going on behind the London net, Fleury, and Matthew Tkachuk got jawing just inside the blue line and Fleury ended up pulling of Tkachuk’s helmet.
That sent the Knights to the power play and the guy who drew the penalty set up the opening goal of the game. Tkachuk took a pass from Marner and threaded a beautiful pass onto the stick of Aaron Berisha and the 40-goal scorer from the regular season beat Red Deer goalie, Rylan Toth to put the Knights ahead 1-0.
That goal seemed to get the groove back in the Knights’ game and they grew their lead from there.
On a four-on-four, London got all guys in white on the ice moving and it opened up a lane for Dvorak, who walked into the slot and snapped a shot past Toth for a 2-0 lead.
The Knights who had played in a Memorial Cup tournament before, kept using a line going into London’s opener. They kept saying, “you can’t take a shift off.” It may or may not have been a mantra, but it was certainly on their minds and they caught Red Deer sitting back for just a second and it allowed the Knights to win a faceoff in the Rebels’ end which saw Marner zoom behind the net and wrap a pass to Dvorak for his second goal in less than two minutes, giving the Knights a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period.
In the second, it was more of the same from London. Marner and Dvorak played give and go and give it back one more time for Marner’s first goal of the game to make it 4-0.
Then Victor Mete intercepted a puck in the slot and fired a shot past Toth to stretch London’s lead to 5-0.
Just one minute and 46 seconds after that, the Knights made it 6-0 as a Red Deer turnover went from Dvorak to Marner and he fired the puck high.
With just 14.9 seconds remaining, Red Deer gave their home crowd a cheer as Luke Philp tipped a Colton Bobyk slapshot past Parsons for the first goal against the London Knights since the second period of Game 3 of the OHL Championship series.
Parsons made several highlight reel saves, including a pad spreading split-stop on a Red Deer 2-on-1. Parsons was named the game’s third star. The Chesterfield, Michigan native made 30 stops in all.
The Rebels finished the game strong and scored the only goal of the third period on a power play off the stick of Evan Polei.
Olli Juolevi turned in a strong performace against a physical Red Deer team and ended the game with two assists.
Brandon and Rouyn-Noranda will take over the ice on Saturday. The Huskies will play the Rebels on Sunday and then the Knights will play the Wheat Kings on Monday. Catch the game on NewsTalk 1290 CJBK starting at 7:30 with the pre-game show.
