London Knights vs Windsor Spitfires - Game 1 Recap

The venue.

I scored a couple of tickets to game one of the first round playoff series in the OHL between the number one ranked London Knights and the 8th seed Windsor Spitfires at the John Labatt Centre, on Friday, March 23rd and was it ever a good one!

The Knights and the Spits have had a hatred for a very long time. Every year, even in the regular season, their games have a very physical tone and they are always competitive. They split the season series 3-3 this year, and they weren't really that close, with every game being decided by 3 goals or more.

Rally Towel that I found!

                                                      The Knights brought out their rendition of the "Terrible Towels" that the Pittsburgh Steelers, but they called them the "rally towels". This reporter sadly did not get a towel, since I was in standing room, but I managed to swipe one that one of the people in front of me was nice enough to leave behind. The crowd really only used them two or three times, but it really created a great atmosphere.

Michael Houser, the third ranked goalie in GAA during the regular season, started in goal for the Knights, while Jaroslav Pavelka started for the Spitfires. Both of these goalies played very well, one of them was just much busier than the other.

The game began very physically, with the hits piling up. Vladislav Namestnikov, who recently signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, opened up the scoring on beautiful goal 7:13 into the game. The Knights potted another goal at the 12:31 mark, on a strong push to the net by Bo Horvat, with a defender draped all over him. Michael Houser also got the assist on that one.

Speaking of Houser, his puck-playing ability was really on display tonight. Whenever Windsor would dump the puck in, Houser would be out there to cut it off behind the net and stymie the offense. This forced Windsor to try alternate methods to gain the zone. Houser also cleared the puck out of the zone on a few occasions on the penalty kill, killing precious seconds.

The first two periods were physically, but in terms of penalties and scrums after the whistle, they were at a minimum. There were two London penalties in the first, both of which they killed off, and Windsor took one penalty in the second, which they also killed off. The third period is when things got very interesting...

Brady Vail took a tripping penalty 2:46 into the frame, and the Knights took full advantage. Jared Knight deflected a puck out front on a slap pass from Scott Harrington and the game was 3-0. The Knights finished 1-5 on the powerplay, while Windsor finished 0-6. That's when the scoring stopped and the rough stuff began.

"Hey, Houser, want to fight?"

"Nope"

With about 4 minutes left in the game, Max Domi, son of Tie Domi the famous enforcer, was involved in a shoving match in front of the Windsor net that saw the Windsor player, Brendan McCann, started throwing punches. Domi, much the opposite of his father, is not the type to throw punches and it didn't appear that he threw any at McCann. That's when everyone jumped in. It was a 5-on-5 melee, with players on top of each other, other players trying to drag players out of the pile, a fight going on off to the side, and nearly a goalie fight. Pavelka, having all the animosity in front of him, certainly had his adrenaline up and started skating towards the blue line. The refs tried to hold him back, though they had bigger problems on their hands. As he slowly proceeded towards the blueline he made the "hey want to drop the gloves" gesture towards London tender Michael Houser. Houser wanted no part of this and the goalie fight that almost was, was not. There were 6 penalties handed out on the play, one of those to London captain Jared Tinordi was given a fighting major after he came in to defend the rookie forward, Domi.

That wasn't it for the tussles between the teams. Just under 2 minutes later, Houser came out behind his net to play the puck, as he had been doing so effectively all game. Windsor forward Zack MacQueen came storming in on the forecheck, and I said to the person I was at the game with, "Houser's about to be run". Sure enough, MacQueen ran right into Michael Houser with London defenseman Scott Harrington right behind him. Nearly the exact moment that Houser was hit, Harrington put MacQueen in a headlock and Houser even threw a punch of his own. This resulted in another scuffle involving all the skaters on the ice, and the only fighting majors that were handed out were to Windsor's top scorer in the regular season, Kerby Rychel and London's Jared Knight.

That was pretty much it for the game. The emotion in the building was running very high, and I think if the Knights scored, it would have erupted, just because of the pure hatred for the Spitfires. The last 2 minutes finished without incident and the Knights finished it up with the 3-0 win.

London outshot Windsor 36-21 and Pavelka played very well all game. He really kept the Spits in the game, and if they have any hope in this series, he will have to continue his great play. Houser played solidly, controlling the rebounds actively with his stick and playing the puck effectively to help the offense, and he picked up the shutout.

Namestnikov earned the game's first star, Houser grabbed second, and Pavelka was third star.

I look forward to seeing how the remaining games of the series play out, especially after what transpired in game one.

Did you see the game? What were your thoughts? Are you excited by this series? Who do you think will win, and in how many games? Let us know down below!