George Diako put the overtime winner into the Owen Sound net at the 15:57 mark of overtime to give the London Knights a 5–4 victory in Game 2 of their opening round playoff series.
Diako set the puck up just inside the blue line and followed Max McCue’s drive over the net which opened up space as Diako glided into the slot and picked his position to put the Knights up 2–0 in the series.
Owen Sound tied the game with two goals in a span of 32 seconds with only 53 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Colby Barlow’s first goal of the playoffs started the scoring early in the period. Barlow scored 46 goals in 59 games in the regular season to lead the Owen Sounds, and he rebounded on an attached power play at the 11:11 mark.
London tied the game five minutes and 33 seconds later. Sam Dickinson fired a pass onto the stick of Brodie Crane, who was working hard at the net, and Crane scored his first goal of the post-season. Dixon got the only assist on the play, but the goal would not have been accomplished without the work of Landon Sim and Ruslan Gazizov.
Owen Sound was called for icing and gained possession on the faceoff, but Gazizov and Sim gave the attack no room to clear the puck to replace some tired players, and eventually Dickinson hit the right wall. Won a race with and pretended. To Crane.
London, Ont. – Easton Cowan scored his first OHL playoff goal for the London Knights.
Jim Van Horn / 980 CFPL
The Knights connected twice on the man advantage in the middle period as Denver Barki took a shot that was blocked by Attack goalie Corbin Votary, but Easton Cowan grabbed the rebound, decked it up and scored his first OHL playoff goal to make it 2–1. Gave. London.
A little over four minutes later, Ryan Winterton buried a shot from the slot to extend the Knights’ lead heading into the final 20 minutes.
Owen Sound made it 3–2 just 4:34 into the third period when defenseman Sam Sedley stole a puck at center ice, driving in and scoring alone.
London defenseman Ethan McKinnon restored the Knights’ two-goal lead as he volleyed past Votri to make a save with 10:33 left.
The Attack found a late power play and used it to draw within a goal again in Barlow’s second game. Then 32 seconds later Cedric Guindon got a puck near the left point of the London zone and blasted a shot through a screen and Brett Brochu tied things up at 4–4.
London outgained the attack 53–28 on aggregate.
Both the teams scored twice on man advantage as the series has now slipped north.
Tough draw ends road in OHL Cup
The U-16 London Junior Knights turned a rough start into a phenomenal finish in their round robin at the 2023 OHL Cup. After losing their first game and leaving themselves no room for error, the Junior Knights reeled off three straight wins over three good teams and advanced to the OHL Cup quarterfinals behind Aidan Young’s overtime winning goal.
London then found himself against the Toronto Junior Canadiens, where he scored first, but lost 4–1, effectively ending his tournament. Young led the way offensively with six goals and eight points in five games. The Junior Knights will now face the Waterloo Wolves for the Alliance Championship. The Toronto Junior Canadiens have since moved on to the OHL Cup Finals where they will face the Vaughan Kings on Monday, April 3 at 7 p.m. ET.
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The Knights and Attack head to Owen Sound, Ontario, and play games three and four of their first round series.
The Attack won two of the three matches played at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Center this season.
The most recent victory was a dominating 7–5 victory, in which Owen Sound jumped out to a 5–0 lead before the Knights mounted a fiery comeback that twice brought them within one goal of tying the game. before the onslaught put an end to it. Good.
Game 3 is Tuesday, April 4 at 7PM and Game 4 is Thursday, April 6 at 7PM
Coverage begins at 6:30 PM on 980 CFPL http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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