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| Friday, April 17, 2009 | |
London Knights 6 vs. Windsor Spitfires 5 |
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Knights refuse to lose By RYAN PYETTE, LONDON FREE PRESS There's been two overtime heroes in the OHL's Western Conference semifinal so far. They couldn't be more different. Windsor's Ryan Ellis won Game 1. He's the world junior golden boy, the NHL's next Mike Green -- an offensive wizard on the blue-line and a projected high NHL pick this summer. And then there's London's Phil Varone. His goal 2:25 into another extra session gave his Knights a stirring come-from-behind 6-5 win over the Spitfires before 9,090 last night at the John Labatt Centre to send the series back to Windsor squared at one. Varone's the epitome of hard work. A smaller player not afraid to get in the corners and hustle back to break up a rush. His dream is just to get noticed and drafted to any NHL team this year. He's in the middle of the playoff of his life and his draft ranking actually went down this week. "I looked at the rankings for about 30 seconds and then threw them out and didn't pay attention," he said. "I want to win. The further we go, the better opportunity it is for all of us looking to get drafted. "It was obviously a big win for us. We didn't give up. We showed some character. "In Game 1, we took some penalties and gave up the two goal-lead and they won. We did the opposite to them (rallying three times from two goals down)." They held up a mirror to the best team in the Canadian Hockey League. Now, the league champs have to look at themselves. "We blew the two-goal leads," Windsor captain Harry Young said. "We did that to ourselves. It wasn't anything they did. We took the penalties. "(On the winner), it was just a defensive breakdown. A breakdown between me and my partner." John Tavares scored his first two goals of the series, late in the second period and early in the third with the man advantage, to tie the game. OHL WEST FINAL In sudden death, Varone was at the receiving end of a nice passing play and slid the puck under big Windsor goalie Andrew Engelage to trigger the celebration. "It was a great team effort," the 18-year-old from Vaughan said. "Phil (McRae) won the puck and got it Earl (Daniel Erlich) and he got it over and all I had to do was make sure it went in." It was Varone's team-leading ninth of the playoffs. "I think it's just newfound confidence," he said. "That was probably the biggest goal I've scored. We didn't want to go back to Windsor down 2-0." Playing with Erlich doesn't hurt a sniper. The little guy is a sensational setup man and the pair hugged each other as they left the ice. "We never gave up," Erlich said. "You feel great for a guy like Phil to get that winner. We're a tight team. You always want to get the lead and play with it, but we showed we're not going to quit. "That's what kind of team we are." Varone is its poster boy. Tavares said Varone's success comes down to his unrelenting desire. "Phil does the things people don't see," the NHL's top-ranked prospect said. "A backcheck to break up the rush, he takes away their transition game. So to see him get rewarded with the winner, it's great for him, the whole team. "We hung in there. I only had two or three shots and I was fortunate to be able to pick the corners. Curdog (assistant coach Pat Curcio) was on us to get more shots." There's two old sayings in hockey: Don't let a star player get going. The Spitfires have let Tavares get his touch back. Also, two-goal leads are always the hardest to protect. "I don't know why it is, but it's always been that way," London head coach Dale Hunter said. "When it's two down, I think teams feel like they have nothing to lose because if it's three or four, it doesn't matter, you still lose. "These guys, even when they were down two, stayed positive on the bench. They tapped each other on the shoulders. They stayed up and kept working." Windsor head coach Bob Boughner thought they got a little help. At one point, his team -- the most penalized in the OHL -- took six straight trips to the sin bin. The Knights finished three-for-nine on the power play. The Spits were two-for-four and are six-for-10 in the series. "Our power play is clicking and we thought we thought we made some plays that could've been power plays for us but went uncalled," Boughner said. "Some of our penalties I thought were good (calls) and others I didn't like. "We were in the box for almost the whole of one period. "You can't give Johnny T (Tavares) that many power plays and our better players spent most of their time penalty killing and that's draining. "But this is no time to complain about that. I still wasn't crazy about our five-on-five play. "We have to be better." London scored on its third shot of overtime. Windsor didn't record a shot in the short session. Next: Game 3 is tomorrow at 4 p.m. in Windsor. SHOTS Windsor Spitfires - 32 London Knights - 44 SCORING 1. WSR Timmins, (4) (Kwiet), 4:51 (PP) 1. WSR Wellwood, (6) (Loktionov, Young), 5:47 1. LDN Carlson, (4) (Del Zotto, Kadri), 12:33 (PP) 2. LDN Carlson, (5) , 7:57 (PP) 2. WSR Hall, (10) (Henrique, Ellis), 9:01 2. WSR Kwiet, (5) (Ellis), 13:38 (PP) 2. LDN McRae, (5) (Montgomery, Tarasuk), 16:41 2. WSR Nemisz, (7) (Hall), 18:17 2. LDN Tavares, (7) (Kadri, Del Zotto), 18:33 3. LDN Tavares, (8) (Carlson, Del Zotto), 6:07 (PP) OT. LDN Varone, (9) (Erlich, McRae), 2:25 PENALTIES 1 - WSR Shugg, 0:41 - Roughing , 2 min 1 - LDN Rinaldo, 0:41 - Roughing , 2 min 1 - LDN Varone, 1:34 - Slashing , 2 min (PP) 1 - LDN Del Zotto, 3:33 - High Sticking , 2 min (PP) 1 - WSR Watson, 6:55 - Tripping , 2 min (PP) 1 - WSR Cundari, 10:29 - Cross Checking , 2 min (PP) 1 - WSR Blacker, 11:36 - Tripping , 2 min (PP) 1 - WSR MacDermid, 15:36 - High Sticking , 2 min (PP) 2 - WSR Cundari, 7:48 - Roughing , 2 min (PP) 2 - WSR Henrique, 10:37 - Delay of Game , 2 min (PP) 2 - LDN Rinaldo, 13:24 - Interference , 2 min (PP) 2 - LDN Del Zotto, 18:51 - Tripping , 2 min (PP) 3 - WSR Young, 2:40 - Boarding , 2 min (PP) 3 - WSR Ellis, 5:33 - Delay of Game , 2 min (PP) 3 - WSR Kwiet, 14:41 - Hooking , 2 min (PP) WINDSOR SPITFIRES GOALIES 1 Engelage, Andrew Goals Against: 6 Mins: 62:25 Shots: 44 Saves: 38 PIM: 0 30 Unice, Josh Goals Against: - Mins: - Shots: - Saves: - PIM: - LONDON KNIGHTS GOALIES 30 Heming, Stephen GA: - MIN: - SH: - SV: - PIM: - 34 Cann, Trevor GA: 5 MIN: 62:25 SH: 32 SV: 27 PIM: 0 THREE STARS 1. LDN - 71 Phil Varone 2. WSR - 4 Taylor Hall 3. LDN - 61 John Tavares ICE OFFICIALS Brent Holdsworth (22), Referee Dave Lewis (16), Referee Kevin Hastings (61), Linesman Brian Hoard (40), Linesman OFF-ICE OFFICIALS Dean Johnson, Score Keeper Josh Sweetland, Online Scorekeeper Dave Longfield, Goal Judge 1 John McInerney, Goal Judge 2 Dave Whaley, Video Goal Judge ARENA John Labatt Centre Attendance: 9090 Start: 7:41 PM Length: 2:36 |