Series HQ: London vs. Flint

Game 4: Knights finish-off Firebirds in four straight
London 3 at Flint 2 – London wins series 4-0

• Third period goals from Sam O’Reilly and Denver Barkey pushed the Knights ahead for good
• Easton Cowan gathered an assist on Landon Sim’s first period marker, giving him points in 40 consecutive games dating back to Nov. 25th
• Michael Simpson was the game’s first star, stopping 34-of-36 as the Knights were outshot 36-31 in the win
• New York Islanders prospect Isaiah George had two assists for London
• Simon Slavicek and Matthew Wang scored Flint goals in front of 28 saves from goaltender Nathan Day
• Ruslan Gazizov returned to the Knights lineup, making his series debut
• Flint overagers Oliver Peer, Roberto Mancini and Nolan Dann played their final OHL contest; Dann recorded an assist
• The Firebirds played to a regular season record of 30-33-4-1, seeing their season come to an end in the first round for a second straight year

Game Centre & Highlights | Flint Post-Game

The @LondonKnights take it in four straight games ⚔️#OHLPlayoffs | #LDNvsFLNT pic.twitter.com/wy1e9IVoJX

— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) April 5, 2024

Game 3: Sim’s OT winner gives Knights 3-0 stranglehold
London 4 at Flint 3 (OT) – London leads series 3-0

• Flint battled back from down 3-1 to tie the score at three before St. Louis Blues prospect Landon Sim tipped an Oliver Bonk shot into the net 11:59 into overtime
• Easton Cowan scored, registering a point in a 39th consecutive game
• Kaleb Lawrence and Kasper Halttunen also scored for London while Max McCue had a pair of assists
• Connor Clattenburg, Coulson Pitre and Blake Smith scored Flint markers while Tristan Bertucci had two helpers
• The Knights outshot the Firebirds 36-28
• London improves to 36-3-3 with Landon Sim in the lineup this season; they are 17-11-1 without him
• Ruslan Gazizov remained out of the London lineup

Game Centre & Highlights | Flint Post-Game

HOW WE FEELIN pic.twitter.com/gfJViITu1o

— London Knights (@LondonKnights) April 3, 2024

Game 2: Knights overcome FIrebirds with strong finish
London 6 vs. Flint 4 – London leads series 2-0

• London opened the scoring, but Flint responded with three goals in under three minutes to go up 3-1
• The Knights would score five of the next six goals to take over the game, with Kasper Halttunen scoring twice
• Max McCue was the game’s first star with a goal and two assists
• Oliver Bonk had a goal and an assist while fellow blueliner Isaiah George also scored for the Knights
• Easton Cowan had two assists, giving him points in 38 straight games
• Oliver Peer scored two of Flint’s goals, being joined on the scoresheet by Coulson Pitre and Nathan Aspinall
• London outshot Flint 39-22

Game Centre & Highlights | Flint Post-Game

knights pics that go hard pic.twitter.com/yCwTizsesW

— London Knights (@LondonKnights) March 31, 2024

Game 1: Simpson shuts the door as Knights blank Firebirds
London 3 vs. Flint 0 – London leads series 1-0

• Michael Simpson made 23 saves for his second consecutive shutout as London held Flint off the scoresheet
• Kaleb Lawrence scored first and second period goals before Easton Cowan hit the empty net in the final minute of regulation
• Lawrence won 16-of-20 faceoff attempts in the game
• Nathan Day stopped 17-of-19 for Flint
• A sell out crowd of 9,036 took in Game 1 at Budweiser Gardens

Game Centre & Highlights | Flint Post-Game

Michael Simpson was flawless in Game One ✅

The reigning #OHLPlayoffs MVP turned aside all 23 shots he faced as the @LondonKnights blanked the 'Birds 🎥#LDNvsFLNT pic.twitter.com/B8GFFSi8Bw

— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) March 30, 2024

—

(1) London Knights (50-14-1-3) vs. (8) Flint Firebirds (30-33-4-1)

Flint Series Preview

The Flint Firebirds have had an interesting season.

There’s been an early coaching change, some significant roster shuffling, but also some moves that were made for such a time as this – a first round date with the London Knights.

Firebirds GM Dave McParlan moved some big names during the season, with Ethan Hay going to Saginaw, Gavin Hayes going to Sault Ste. Marie, Zacharie Giroux heading to Sudbury and Braeden Kressler going to Ottawa, but the Firebirds were always very clear that they weren’t throwing in the towel. In fact, Flint added veterans in Oliver Peer (37-43–80) and Roberto Mancini (5-20–25) from the Windsor Spitfires, and also acquired a couple promising Soo forwards in Connor Clattenburg (13-16–29) and Alex Kostov (12-14–26).

Practice flicks 📸

The boys are back in the lab getting set for our first round matchup with London 💪 pic.twitter.com/ggxPjoQDhu

— Flint Firebirds (@FlintFirebirds) March 26, 2024

With some of those moves in mind, one would think Flint’s intention was to position themselves as a capable opponent come playoff-time, more than just first round fodder for the big dogs of the Western Conference. The Firebirds have a great opportunity to show they can hang in there against a London team that’s demonstrated they’re darn good, but not invincible.

There’s two things the Firebirds could potentially hang their hat on in this series, one being that the Knights are the most penalized team in the OHL. Flint’s power play will need to operate at a better clip than 17th overall in the league if that’s going to be a path to victory though, especially considering their opponent’s power play is the best the OHL has seen statistically in the past 25 years. The other thing worth mentioning is Flint’s inverted home/road splits, the most upside-down look in the OHL with a 12-19-2-1 mark at home against an 18-14-2-0 record on the road (and one of those wins came in London on Feb. 7th).

Like any 1 vs. 8 matchup though, the scales weigh heavily in London’s favour over a seven-game series.

The Knights had the second-most goals scored in the league while surrendering the fewest, with the goaltending tandem of Michael Simpson and Owen Willmore winning the Dave Pinkney Trophy for their efforts. Other points of success include Denver Barkey’s (35-67–102) 102-point season along with Easton Cowan (34-62–96) entering play on a 36-game point streak that dates all the way back to Nov. 25th. London’s blueline isn’t shy about activating offensively either, with Sam Dickinson (18-52–70) and Oliver Bonk (24-43–67) both registering over a point-per-game.

The Knights are a well-oiled machine under head coach Dale Hunter, coming off a fifth straight Midwest Division title and the seventh Hamilton Spectator Trophy as regular season champions in franchise history.

London’s scoring depth is scary, with nine different players in their lineup scoring at least 20 goals. It’ll be interesting to see how Flint plans on handling that, and they’ll have to figure it out quick when the puck drops at 7:00pm on Friday at Budweiser Gardens.

See the series in its entirety on OHL Live.

Historic run for the power play. pic.twitter.com/rNFRv8Ha7M

— London Knights (@LondonKnights) March 25, 2024

Series Schedule:
Game 1: Fri., March 29 – Flint at London, 7:00pm
Game 2: Sun., March 31 – Flint at London, 2:00pm
Game 3: Tues., April 2 – London at Flint, 7:00pm
Game 4: Thurs., April 4 – London at Flint, 7:00pm
Game 5: Fri., April 5 – Flint at London, 7:00pm*
Game 6: Sun., April 7 – London at Flint, 4:00pm*
Game 7: Tues., April 9 – Flint at London, 7:00pm*

Season Series:
London wins 3-1
Nov. 17 – FLNT 7 at LDN 4
Dec. 31 – FLNT 3 at LDN 5
Feb. 7 – LDN 9 at FLNT 2
Mar. 2 – LDN 4 at FLNT 3

Playoff History:
This marks the first time that London and Flint have met in the OHL Playoffs