London Knights in a Must Win Situation

Barrie Colts forward Andreas Athanasiou

The next sixty minutes or so, will make or break the London Knights chances at an OHL title. The Knights travel to Barrie once again, this time for a must win game four against the Colts at the Molson Centre.

For ex-Knights' forward Andreas Athanasiou, it's been a series to remember so far. The Detroit Red Wings fourth round pick in 2012 is the only player to register goals in all three games so far this series.

He's gone from being another Knights' alumni, to major concern for Dale Hunter and his troops.

"It's great to see him doing well," said sophomore Knights' forward Bo Horvat. "We played with him last year but that's the past. Right now he's just another player on their team and we want to stop him."

Stop him they need to. Athanasiou has three points this series, all goals, two of them coming at the arena he once called home, the Budweiser Gardens. Along with Mark Scheifele, Athanasiou is fast propelling the Colts to their first OHL title since the 1999/2000 season.

London effectively utilized home ice advantage and last change, to effectively shut down Scheifele. The 2011 Winnipeg Jets first rounder was at his stellar best when the Colts had last change Monday evening, not having to play against London's shut down line. He finished with 2 goals, and 3 assists that night, his second multi goal game of these playoffs.

"Everyone was working their hardest," said Scheifele. "Everyone was creating chances I think. That pulled of pressure of everyone giving us time to relax and make the play we want."

“We weren't too sharp,” added London's versatile utility man Tyler Ferry. “Next game, we don't have last change and we're going to work as a group and collectively shut them down. (We) just got to get up for the challenge."

For London, game four is a challenge.

For Barrie, it's a chance to pile pressure on London like never before.
The last time the Knights faced elimination from the OHL playoffs was over two years ago, on April 3, 2011, when the Owen Sound Attack beat the Knights in six games en route to thier first OHL title.

Puck drop Wednesday evening from the Barrie Molson Centre is 7:35pm.

Image Credit: Yahoo Sports.

Barrie Colts Strike First in OHL Finals

Puck drop between the London Knights and the Barrie Colts

Call it deja vu. Almost.

The Barrie Colts struck first blood in the Ontario Hockey League finals, beating the London Knights 4-2 in game one Friday evening.

Unlike the Niagara IceDogs from last season, they didn’t need double overtime.

The Colts grabbed the second-period lead and held off a late Knights rally in front of 9,046 at Budweiser Gardens.

"That's the plan," said Colts head coach Dale Hawerchuk. "You come in here and try to win the hockey game, and the boys were able to do that. Mathias [Niederberger] had a great game for us."

Niederberger, a German native and overager for Barrie was a rock in net, stopping 40 of 42 shots, not counting the numerous blocked shots as London turned up the pressure late in the third period searching for a tying goal.

His counterpart, Knights' Anthony Stolarz stopped 24 of 27 shots, making this the fifth straight start where he's let in three or more goals.

Ryan Rupert opened the scoring for the defending champions early in the second period, after a terrific pass from captain Scott Harrington. Ex Knight Andreas Athanasiou wasted no time to make a mark on his return to London and tied things up two minutes later, leading to a barrage of boos from the London faithful.

“We had our chances and didn’t bury on them,” lamented a sombre looking Knights head coach Dale
Hunter, “and that was the difference.”

Needing two goals for most of the third period, London’s Alex Broadhurst beat Niederberger glove high on the power play off a Claude Lemieux penalty, bringing the Knights to within one, which changed momentum drastically. From then on it was all London, all the way, Barrie escaping after two massive glove saves and a shot off the framework late on.

"The guys had confidence in front of him [Niederberger]," added Hawerchuk. "There's good unity between the players and the goaltender, and he's the backbone for us."

“I think we did a great job keeping the shots to the outside,” Niederberger, who was also named first star said . “It was our plan and we did that really well. We tried to give up shots from the outside and the boys did a really good job with that making it easier for me."

Lemieux, son of ex NHL-er Claude ended up with the game winner on the powerplay barely two minutes into the final period. Future Winnipeg Jet Mark Schiefele added the insurance late on via the empty net goal.

“It’s a bit of a wake-up call for us,” said Knights' Seth Griffith said. “I think (losing Game 1 is) going to make us play that much harder over the next couple of games.”

Game two of the OHL's Western Conference final did just that for London. They rallied back with two six goal outings in Plymouth to beat the Whalers in five straight.

Expect the Knights to come out in game two with a lot more shots on net. They went into the Kitchener and Saginaw series knowing that constantly peppering Saginaw's Jake Paterson and Kitchener's John GIbson would eventually lead to mistakes from the netminder.

And it did.

"On the powerplay we passed the puck too much," added Broadhurst. "We were getting too cute. Against Plymouth we shot every puck, going hard to the net. Now we had defenceman shooting the puck but no one at the net [for the rebound], that's got to change."

"We got to block a few more shots too, just like they did at key moments of the game," he added.

The Knights were without winger Josh Anderson and Matt Rupert, both still nursing lower body injuries.

Game two goes Sunday evening at 7:05 from the Bud Gardens.
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SUMMARY:
Colts 4, Knights 2
Barrie leads OHL championship series 1-0
Barrie goals: Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Camara, Brendan Lemieux, Mark Scheifele (EN)
London goals: Ryan Rupert, Alex Broadhurst