For a good portion of the game, it was hard to figure out which team was 3rd and which was fighting for their playoff lives.
After the third period, the London Knights left no doubt as to who was the better team.
The Knights exploded with three goals in the third en route to a 5-2 win over the Windsor Spitfires at Budweiser Gardens. Matt Rupert scored the game winner on the power play early in the third, banging in a rebound from two feet away. Other than that, every Knights goal showed off the great skill of their top players, executing beautiful odd-man rushes with pinpoint passing.
Mitch Marner and Christian Dvorak each had four points in the game: Dvorak had two goals and two assists while Marner had a goal and added three helpers, to give him nine points in his last three games.
“I think it’s been our line that’s really been rolling lately,” Marner said after the game. “As long as the team is winning we’re all happy in the room.”
There’s no denying the chemistry that the line of Dvorak, Marner and Max Domi shares, and Marner credits their off-ice friendship.
“We’re great friends on and off the ice. I think it shows on the ice how close we really are. We have the same kind of mindset on the ice. It’s nice to have.”
How do they maintain that camaraderie?
“We hang out a lot, going to movies, going out to eat, hanging out at billets. We just try to stay close and keep the chemistry up.”
The win snapped a three-game losing skid for the Knights, who had dropped three straight by a combined score of 21-8. Tyler Parsons made 27 saves in the win.
GOALS
1st
LDN: Dvorak (29) Marner, Crawley 2:46; Marner (33) Dvorak, Martenet 4:53
WIN: DiGiancinto (14) Chatfield 8:35; Povorozniouk (12) McCool, Murphy 15:41 PP
3rd
LDN: Rupert (16) Marner, Dvorak 2:40 PP; Dvorak (30) Domi, Marner 5:26; MacDonald (8) Grzelewski, Yakimowicz 9:11;
PP
Windsor: 1/3 London 1/4
Shots
London 37 Windsor 29
