Knights' Night: The Knights are in first

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: CLAUS ANDERSON OF GETTY IMAGES
Knights' Cliff Pu, as well as countless other players, helped the team work their way back up to first place in the OHL standings.

It took 22 games, but the Knights are finally on top of the OHL standings.

Following three wins in three tries over the weekend, the Knights passed the Erie Otters to take over first place.

They have nine victories in their past 10 games, including six wins in a row, good enough for a stunning 16-3-3 record.

A few weeks ago, I was worried that London couldn’t score goals. That problem has been rectified. They scored eight against North Bay Battalion at home on Nov. 18, and another eight in Niagara the next day. You just don’t score at that pace and lose.

So, where’s the offence coming from? Captain J.J. Piccinich seemed to know after Friday’s rout of the Battalion.

“The team is really starting to gel, our power play has been operating really well, and guys are really starting to click,” Piccinich said after the game. “We’re really coming together as a team.”

That’s an understatement. The Knights haven’t lost since Nov. 6, and they’re showing no signs of slowing down.

The winning weekend began at Budweiser Gardens. With the Battalion in town, the Knights used eight different goal scorers to cruise to an 8-3 win. First liners Cliff Pu and Janne Kuokkanen had three points each in the win.

Nov. 19 was much of the same. In the first matchup since the OHL championship series last April, London left nothing to chance. Sam Miletic scored a hat trick, Cliff Pu potted another two, and the Knights rolled over the Niagara Ice Dogs 8-2.

Pu has been the MVP of the Knights 2016-2017 season thus far, and his 17-game point streak has been turning heads across the league; 39 points in 20 games will do that for you. He’s up to fourth place in OHL scoring, and only eight back of leader Taylor Raddysh.

Overshadowed in the excellence of first line stars Pu, Kuokkanen and Max Jones is the play of Sam Miletic.

The 19-year old is in his second year with the Knights; he’s scored 17 goals in 22 games. That’s good enough for first on his team, and third in the league. The only players who have scored more are Raddysh and his Erie Otters’ teammate Alex DeBrincat; he’s on pace to score 50 goals this season.

After taking care of business against North Bay and Niagara on Nov. 18 and 19, they faced a much more difficult task on Nov. 20, with the high-flying Windsor Spitfires in town.

The Knights proved they can play under pressure, coming back from two goals down to defeat the Spits 3-2 in overtime.

After falling down 2-0 in the second period, the Knights saved some magic for the final frame. The comeback began when Jones took a pass from Pu just inside the Windsor blue line, a little over six minutes into the third period. Jones snapped a shot past Windsor goalie Michael Di Pietro to cut the Spitfires’ lead to 2-1.

With five minutes left in the game, Olli Juolevi picked the corner after some nice passing to tie it up at two. Jones came close to ending the game in regulation, hitting the post in the final seconds of the third, before it was off to overtime.

Tyler Parsons made an unbelievable save on a Spitfires’ 2-on-1 seconds into the extra frame, which surely should have ended the game. Less than two minutes later, Brandon Crawley ripped home the game winner.

In their third game in three days, the Knights were able to push through the fatigue and complete the comeback against a defensively sound Windsor Spitfires’ team.

The 3-2 win puts London a point ahead of Erie for first in the league, with a game in hand.

Whether they can keep winning at this pace, only time will tell. But one thing is for sure: this is a fun team to watch these days.