Otters earn hard-fought point in 5-4 OT loss at London

LONDON — Memo to Erie Otters: if you enter overtime with the London Knights tied at 4, keep the puck away from defenseman Steven Tarasuk.rrThe Knights blueliner won the first meeting of the teams at Tullio Oct. 3, 5-4, with an overtime goal; and Friday night he set up teammate Jared Knight for his second goal of the game, 34 seconds into extra time for the same result, this time at the John Labatt Centre, ending an entertaining but weird Ontario Hockey League contest.rrHow weird? Five goals were scored on Erie powerplays on this night, with the Otters holding a narrow 3-2 edge in that department. Garett Hunter, Philip McRae and Justin Taylor rounded out the scoring for the home team, while Mike Cazzola, with two goals and one assist, David Shields and Greg McKegg, who also had a pair of helpers, scored for Erie.rrThe Knights (15-7-0-1) emerged from the first period with a 2-0 lead on Knight's first goal of the game, and 10th of the season, and Hunter's second, and that was the end of a standard OHL contest. rrThe middle period was a surreal tale of four London penalties and four-and-a-half goals. Colin Martin took a holding penalty at 2:15 and 27 seconds later, Cazzola took a pass from Mitch Gaulton to the left of Hutchinson and lifted a shot over the goalie's shoulder to cut the margin in half. McKegg got the second assist. At 6:47, Pieter Schinkelshoek was called for a hook and this time it took the Otters only 10 seconds to score a second powerplay goal as defenseman Shields moved down low to the edge of the crease where he redirected Shawn Szydlowski's pass to tie the contest, with Anthony Luciani also helping.rrIt then it got strange and, in retrospect, Robbie Ftorek would have been forgiven if, like his football counterparts he could have exercised the option of declining a penalty. Leigh Salters was sent off for hooking at 12:05, and by the time the two minutes had elapsed, the Knights had their two-goal lead back on a pair of shorthanded markers.rrThe first came when Nazem Kadri, who had three assists on this night, moved into the Erie zone, dropped Janus with a shoulder feint and feathered a pass to Taylor who had a yawning net to the Erie goalie's right at 12:52. Fifty-two seconds later, McRae took a pass from Hunter on the left wing, steamed into the offensive zone and faded to the middle, using a defenseman for a screen and putting a low shot past Janus.rrThe strangeness didn't end there. Hunter was whistled off at 17:51 for yet another hook, and 18 seconds into the infraction, Tyler Hostetter found Luciani at the face off dot to Hutchinson's right and the winger's one-timer appeared to enter the net, at least according to referee Kevin Blundell. The video replay judge disagreed, however, ruling that the puck went off the crossbar but didn't hit mesh, and the score at period's end remained, 4-2.rrThe Otters reverted to their rejuvenated powerplay to get back into it in the third period and McKegg took a puck that bounced off the back boards, deflected off Cazzola's leg and one-timed it to cut the margin to one goal at 5:19. The Otters applied the pressure from that point on and were rewarded at 13:21 when Cazzola converted off a McKegg rebound to tie the contest.rrThen the goalies went to work, as Hutchinson stoned McKegg twice in the 15th minute, and then Janus and his goalposts stopped Kadri twice a minute later. Both goalies were busy on this evening as the Otters outshot the home team, 39-34, before 9,090 fans. rrMcKegg's three points extended his consecutive points streak to seven games (5-9—13) and Zack Torquato's single assist allowed him to do the same (4-10—14). rrThe Otters (9-10-3-1) complete their three-game road trip with a pair of games in Owen Sound, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.