The London Knights’ pursuit of a second-straight J. Ross Robertson Cup championship will need to go through the Kitchener Rangers on Friday Night Hockey.
The Knights lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 after their come-from-behind, overtime victory in Game 4 Wednesday. Captain Scott Harrington knows his troops will need to prepare for a desperate Rangers squad that will be playing to keep their championship dreams alive.
“It’s always the hardest game of the series when the other team’s facing elimination, but we’re prepared for that and we’ve gone through it before,” he said. “We have to, I guess, have that killer instinct and all the guys are really looking forward to that game.”
This series hasn’t gone favourably for the Rangers. A couple notable missed calls in Games 2 and 4 helped create the hole they’re in now, which leaves them no other option than to come out swinging in Game 5.
“We have to bounce back as a team. We have no choice being in the position that we’re at,” Rangers associate coach and assistant general manager Paul Fixter said. “It’s tough, but you have to be resilient.”
Fixter believes the answers are within the room. Despite the deficit, his players have played well in the series and with a bounce or two, could be on even footing. The Rangers may need to adopt the Knights’ mentality in order to beat them.
“One of the things London has really shown is they’re a team that doesn’t quit, they just keep coming and coming,” Fixter said. “That’s what it takes. Depth is important. You have to get contributions from not only the ones you expect to get it from, but from the unexpected ones. In the playoffs, you know that it’s the unexpected sources that quite often are the heroes.”
THE STARS: After scoring just one goal in the first two games, the Rangers broke through with six goals in their Game 3 win. Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Josh Leivo and Ottawa Senators prospect Matt Puempel are two of the Rangers’ best players, and will need to step up with their backs against the wall.
“There’s no question we need scoring from them,” Fixter said. “London has done a good job of focusing on them and shutting them down and if that’s what happens, that’s why you have to have other players picking up the slack in the playoffs.
“Josh Leivo is a competitor and Matt Puempel is a competitor. They’re giving us what they can and they will continue to do so as this series goes along.”
Boston Bruins prospect Seth Griffith answered Kitchener’s first goal in Game 4 less than a minute later. It was a big moment for the Knights, who are used to getting those from Griffith.
“Seth’s been great all season,” Harrington said. “It was huge for him to get that goal early for us. It kind of calmed us down and instilled some confidence in us.”
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NAMES TO WATCH: The Knights are one of the highest priorities among NHL scouts this season with Max Domi, Bo Horvat and Nikita Zadorov all considered first-round talents in this draft class. Their contributions haven’t gone unnoticed by their team’s veterans.
“We don’t look at them as 17-year-olds. We look at them as key parts of our hockey club,” Harrington said. “Max got a lot of goals this year. Bo, he’s great at both ends of the ice, killing penalties for us and also on the power-play. And Nik, he’s a big body, he can play defence but also doesn’t mind lugging the puck up the ice. Nik got a big goal for us (to tie Wednesday’s Game 4) and we’re looking for those three guys to keep playing well for us.”
Kitchener rookie Justin Bailey scored a highlight-reel goal to open the scoring on Wednesday. Bailey could be rising up the charts as his combination of size and skill will make him a tempting selection for NHL teams on draft day.
“It was a tremendous goal,” Fixter said of Bailey’s goal in Game 4. “He’s a great player. We need that from him on a regular basis and others need to take note of what he did. There’s other players that are capable of doing that… we need more guys to get on board like that.”
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THE GOALIES: Rangers starter John Gibson is considered by many the top goaltender in the OHL this season. Gibson was nearly unbeatable in the Americans’ gold-medal triumph at the world juniors in Ufa in January. Kitchener will need a similar performance from him to keep this series alive.
“The job of a starting goaltender is to give your team a chance to win and he does that every night he’s in the net,” Fixter said. “John’s a competitor and the other guys have to realize that he’s giving everything he can to give us a chance and what can you do to give us a chance as well.”
Anthony Stolarz rebounded in a big way for the Knights in Game 4. He was pulled after allowing four goals on 20 shots in Game 3, but stopped 47-of-50 in Game 4.
“If you go far in the playoffs, you need good goaltending,” Harrington said. “I thought Anthony’s done a great job so far in this series and the previous one. We have a lot of confidence in him.”
WHAT’S AT STAKE: A Knights victory would end the series and put London in the Western Conference final. It would also give them the benefit of rest before the next series begins.
“That’s really important,” Harrington said. “You never want to look that far ahead, but whenever you have an opportunity to finish a series, it’s important to take advantage of it so you get a couple days off in between series. It’s a long playoffs — it’s a couple months — it’s like a whole other season, so the more rest you can get in between series, the better and that’s just going to give you a slight advantage over the teams you’re playing against.”
The Rangers put all their eggs in this basket. With the team celebrating the franchise’s 50th season, nothing short of a MasterCard Memorial Cup was expected. Those dreams will come crumbling down if they can’t win three in a row against their hated rival, starting with Friday’s Game 5.
