Brandon Caputo
@BCaputo_AGM
The London Knights travelled to the historic Kitchener Memorial Auditorium and went up 3-0 in the best of seven series with a 3-2 road victory.
The Knights opened the scoring thanks to a tip from Landon Sim for his 8th goal of the postseason on a Sam Dickinson point shot. The Rangers would not go away as Luke Ellinas would even up the contest just a few minutes later coming down the left wing and beating Austin Elliott, who was riding a 22-game unbeaten streak in the net.
London would get their lead back as Winnipeg Jets prospect Jacob Julien would get his third goal in the last two games on the man advantage, stepping up in the absence of captain Denver Barkey who went down late in the opening contest.
Late in the opening period, London defenceman Jared Woolley would be receive a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for a knee-on-knee hit on Rangers star forward Luca Romano, leaving the Knights down to five defenceman for the remainder of the game.
After Cameron Arquette got Kitchener on the board early in the final period, evening up the game; it was Landon Sim once again with a redirection goal, lifting London to the game-winning goal midway through the third period.
Kitchener would pull their goaltender and call a timeout but were unable to get the game tied despite a flurry of shots near Austin Elliott late, who secured the victory for London and their now 16-game winning streak dating back to the regular season.
Jackson Parsons stopped 34 of 37 shots in the loss while Elliott stopped 21 of 23 for the victory, helping London now being able to taste another trip the Ontario Hockey League Championship Series.
The Knights will look to close out the Wayne Gretzky Trophy on Wednesday night in Kitchener, while the Rangers will look to start their second straight 3-0 series comeback as they did against the Windsor Spitfires in round two of the OHL Playoffs. Will history repeat itself? The Aud will be the scene in the coming days for Game 4 of this bitter Midwest Division rivalry.
