London Knights 4 vs. Guelph Storm 3

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Knights edge Guelph Storm

By Ryan Pyette, The London Free Press

Pre-game rituals are important, right?

Well, Jared Knight’s got cut short after the soccer ball he was playing with an hour before puck drop got stuck way up high between two pipes in the guts of the John Labatt Centre last night.

"Sometimes, a couple of us kick the ball around,” Knight said. "It takes your mind off the game for a while. But Reno (Zac Rinaldo) thought it would be fun to put the ball up high and it got stuck up there (in the rafters).” 

So Pele play time was over. Knight ended up taping his sticks instead.

Then, the 17-year-old scored twice in two-and-a-half minutes in the first period and the Guelph Storm never made up the difference in a 4-3 Knights win before 8,966 last night.

Credit that stowaway soccer ball for lightening the pressure of a team struggling to score?

"Sure, I will,” Knight said with a grin after potting his fifth and sixth goals of his second OHL season. "Actually, I’ll give the credit to my linemates. Playing with Pieter Schinkelshoek and Nazem Kadri, they got me the puck. When I’m called on to grind, I’ll grind, and when they want me to put the puck in the net, I’ll try to do that, too.”

Maybe Rinaldo should boot that soccer ball up high every home game. Big Leigh Salters eventually got it down with a pole that had to be 20 feet in length.

Then, he, Rinaldo and Dom DeSando — the self-styled Wrecking Crew — pinned the Storm into the last 20 feet of their own end for most of two periods. It was, Knight said, a joy to watch.

"That first minute-and-a-half of game, they kept the puck in the (Guelph) zone and that really set the tone,” Knight said. "They cycled that puck, worked hard and that’s why they’re doing so well as a line right now.”

It’s an example for the rest.

Keep pushing forward and slugging away. Don’t dwell on recent losses to Windsor and Barrie.

Goalie Michael Hutchinson took a cue from unbeaten rookie Michael Houser. He made the big saves when he needed them to preserve the one-goal win.

"That’s what money goalies do,” he said. "You try to give your team a chance to win every game.”

And just like it says on the back of his freshly-painted Derrick Gilders Knights goalie mask: Leave your fears behind.

"It’s just something that popped into my head,” he said. "It’s not from anything. I just liked it. Derrick did a great job with it.”

Hutchinson is a big guy and maybe that size, coupled with his unwavering belief, helped him force Guelph scorer Michael Latta to miss the equalizer with 4.6 seconds to go.

"I don’t know what happened there,” Latta said. "Maybe he got his stick on it. It’s too bad. Taylor Beck made a great play there and Matt Sisca gave a great pass. I had a chance.”

Because the Knights have hovered around three goals a game so far this year, Hutchinson and Houser have had a lot of close contests.

"I was used to it in Barrie where we were a defensive-minded team,” Hutchinson said. "But it’s a matter of time before the offence breaks out. We’ve scored four in back-to-back games so maybe it’s a sign of things to come.”

The offensive floodgates will be required this season.

With Michael Del Zotto staying in the Big Apple, the Knights need another veteran for the blue line if they’re going to chase down the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL’s Western Conference race.

The addition of Russian Anton Klementyev went from promising to possible to, now, pipe dream.

The talented Islanders prospect has only played two games with the American Hockey League’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Former Sarnia speedy defender Mark Katic, by comparison, has played eight on a Tigers team sprinkled by former Sting players.

But Klementyev is unlikely to be assigned to the junior ranks.

"He’s played a couple of games in the AHL now,” GM Mark Hunter Hunter said. "His agent wants him to stay in the (pros). It’s up in the air and we have to move on.”

Tucker Hunter was relegated to all D-man duty last night. Matt Ashman left the game early after taking a puck in the chops.

So will the Knights deal for another defenceman now?

"I don’t know,” Hunter said. "We’re going to look at our team and see where it goes.”

If they can’t beef up the blueline, they’re going to need another scorer. Though Nazem Kadri added another key marker in the third against Guelph, there isn’t a 50-goal man on this crew.

Do the Knights have enough bullets to pull the likes of Cody Hodgson out of Brampton if Stan Butler’s Battalion start a rebuild?

It remains to be seen.

Guelph, meanwhile, has its own problems right now.

Captain Matt Kennedy and forward Peter Holland are injured. Overager Conor O’Donnell, who torched the Knights as a Spitfire last season, missed with the flu.

Goalie Brandon Foote’s status after surgery is up in the air. He was at the rink on crutches.

"It’s no excuse,” Latta said. "We pride ourselves on our depth. We hung around but we want to give ourselves a chance to win games like this.”

This time, it was the Knights, stuck soccer ball and all, who got all the kicks.

SHOTS
Guelph Storm - 34
London Knights - 45

SCORING
1. GUE Beck, (7) (Comrie, Syvret), 5:29
1. LDN Knight, (5) (Rinaldo, Harrington), 5:58
1. LDN Knight, (6) (Kadri, Schinkelshoek), 8:27
1. LDN MacDonald, (1) (Erlich, McRae), 18:38
3. GUE Labardo, (1) (Chiarot), 2:28
3. LDN Kadri, (5) (McRae, Varone), 8:31 (PP)
3. GUE Mitchell, (1) (Menard, Labardo), 9:22

PENALTIES
1 - GUE Chiarot, 4:29 - Check from Behind , 2 min (PP)
1 - LDN Taylor, 5:09 - Hooking , 2 min (PP)
1 - LDN D'Orazio, 8:45 - Roughing , 2 min (PP)
2 - GUE Molotilov, 4:20 - Closing Hand on Puck , 2 min (PP)
2 - GUE Syvret, 6:41 - Fighting , 5 min
2 - LDN Hunter, 6:41 - Fighting , 5 min
2 - GUE Mitchell, 11:24 - Holding , 2 min
2 - LDN Salters, 11:24 - Roughing , 2 min
3 - GUE Chiarot, 3:22 - Interference , 2 min (PP)
3 - GUE Beck, 7:27 - Holding , 2 min (PP)
3 - GUE McNaughton, 10:32 - Roughing , 2 min
3 - LDN Schinkelshoek, 10:32 - Roughing , 2 min

GUELPH STORM GOALIES
29 St. Jacques, Cody Goals Against: 4 Mins: 58:50 Shots: 45 Saves: 41 PIM: 0
34 Hoyle, Matt Goals Against: - Mins: - Shots: - Saves: - PIM: -

LONDON KNIGHTS GOALIES
29 Houser, Michael GA: - MIN: - SH: - SV: - PIM: -
41 Hutchinson, Michael GA: 3 MIN: 60:00 SH: 34 SV: 31 PIM: 0

THREE STARS
1. LDN - 91 Nazem Kadri
2. GUE - 19 Taylor Beck
3. LDN - 97 Jared Knight

ICE OFFICIALS
Bob Langdon (7), Referee
David Gauthier (28), Referee
Drew Jackson (57), Linesman
Sean Pindar (48), Linesman

OFF-ICE OFFICIALS
Dean Johnson, Score Keeper
Josh Sweetland, Online Scorekeeper
John McInerney, Goal Judge 1
Dave Longfield, Goal Judge 2
Dave Whaley, Video Goal Judge

ARENA
John Labatt Centre
Attendance: 8966
Start: 7:03 PM
End: 9:13 PM
Length: 2:10