Anthony Stolarz stopped 25 of 27 shots and Remi Elie paced the offensive attack with two goals in leading the London Knights to a 6-2 win on Thursday, sweeping the Saginaw Spirit in four games in the opening round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.
Max Domi had a goal and an assist for London, with Seth Griffith, Bo Horvat and Olli Maatta chipping in as well. Alex Broadhurst and Paxton Leroux added a pair of assists each.
Eric Locke and David Perklin scored for Saginaw.
London was dominant in every game except for the second, outscoring the Spirit in the series by a wide 21-7 margin.
Jake Paterson started for the Spirit and played 25:43, allowing six goals on 22 shots before he was replaced by Nikita Serebryakov, who stopped all eight shots. London out shot Saginaw 30-27.
As in Game 3, London scored an early goal to take a quick 1-0 lead as Griffith finished off a sweet pass from linemate Miles Liberati. Saginaw tied the game at 8:46 on a goal from Locke, who beat Stolarz glove side, top shelf.
Elie scored the Knights second goal at 15:55 of the first on a give-and-go play with Leroux, helping London increase its lead to 3-1 following a tip in from Domi.
The second period was a goaltending duel with London scoring the only goal on an unassisted marker with just sixteen seconds left in the period. Horvat beat Paterson high on the glove side following a rebound.
Maatta put London on the board in the third period as his point shot found its way to the back of the net at the 1:51 mark.
It didn’t take Saginaw long to match with Perklin scoring thirty three seconds later. Elie scored his second of the night blasting a shot on the short side at 5:43 finishing off Paterson’s night.
Elsewhere in the OHL it was: Kitchener 2 Guelph 1; Oshawa 4 Niagara 1 and Sudbury 5 Brampton 4 (OT).
Rangers 2 Storm 1
(Kitchener leads series 3-1)
Guelph, Ont., Joshua Leivo’s power-play goal near the midway point of the third period stood as the winner as Kitchener edged the Storm.
Game 5 is in Kitchener, Ont., on Friday.
Generals 4 IceDogs 1
(Oshawa leads series 3-1)
At St. Catharines, Ont., Scott Laughton continued his torrid playoff scoring pace with two goals and two assists as Oshawa defeated Niagara. Laughton now has five goals and 11 points, in just four games.
Game 5 is in Oshawa, Ont., on Friday.
Wolves 5 Battalion 4 (OT)
(Sudbury leads series 3-1)
At Sudbury, Ont., Dominik Kubalik scored 15:26 into overtime as the Sudbury Wolves edged Brampton.
Game 5 is in Brampton, Ont., on Friday.
