CREDIT: OHL IMAGES
Deja vu? The Knights pose with the 2013 OHL title trophy.

Michael McCarron got the floodgates open. The big Montreal Canadiens prospect scored London's first playoff goal this season, as the two-time defending OHL champions look for a three peat.

“I just kept working hard and battled through everything,” he said. “I tried to get my leg speed up and that's why I think it was a successful second half. My legs were under me, I feel like I have a lot of confidence and hopefully it showed.”

The energized Knights showed much gusto in their first two games against the Windsor Spitfires. They scored six in both outings. It's the best time of the year for junior hockey fans, and in London, much is expected from this talented crop of players.

These Knights are perfect in their last eight playoff series. That's 32 wins, and just eight games dropped. Of those, just the one series was a seven-game thriller — last year's final against the Barrie Colts.

Newly-Knighted, Gemel Smith was a member of the last team to beat the Knights in a playoff series. The year was 2011, the team: the OHL champion Owen Sound Attack.

“We're exactly how we were in Owen Sound that year,” said Smith, who was a rookie then. “That team worked hard and all the guys here work hard. You look here and they work hard every game and all our team feeds off them and we hope for the best.

“I know they didn't get that Memorial Cup win [the first two times] and I'm going to try to help them as much as I can.”

Smith isn't the only Knight with Memorial Cup dreams haunting him. The core of this year's squad — the 1994-born players — were disappointed not once, but twice at Memorial Cup tournaments.

“There's nothing like a [secret formula] to win an OHL championship,” forward Max Domi told the London Free Press. “It's watching how the older guys handle stuff. It's about leaving it all on the ice. This is the time in the season we play for and we know we're going to do whatever it takes to win here.

“We're looking forward to that challenge again.”

It will be a challenge because this year the Knights had to settle for fourth place in the Western Conference. They ended the regular season with 20 wins in 23 games and still couldn't pass the Erie Otters or the Guelph Storm. The Knights have their back door into the Memorial Cup as hosts, but no one on that team would rather take that route. They want to win, and they know how to win.

Two seasons ago Olli Määttä shone in the playoffs. In his rookie season he had 23 points in 19 games. He was fearless. He was magnificent.

He's now an Olympic medallist.

The Knights would have loved Määttä back for this season. But such is the way of junior hockey. The Guelph Storm added Kerby Rychel and Nick Ebert to an already robust squad. The Otters added Brendan Gaunce and Kurtis MacDermid, while still boasting phenom Connor McDavid.

Both teams and London, one of these three sides will win the OHL Western Conference, meaning one deserving team won't make it to the third round of the playoffs.

It's a harsh reality.

A lot is at stake for these OHL teams. There's no telling what these playoffs will present.

You might see a hot goalie that refuses to give up. It could be unexpected depth scoring. It could be a nail-biting road victory, a moving comeback win or perhaps it'll be something as dramatic as Bo Horvat's buzzer beater last season.

The J. Ross Robertson Cup is there to be won.

Now it's a matter of which team wants it the most.