Playoff Preview: London vs. Kitchener

The Knights begin playoff action Thursday — for the first time since 2019. The No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, they’ll need to play strong defensively to get past the Kitchener Rangers in the first round.

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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It was a tale of two seasons for the London Knights: Life with Brett Brochu, and life without their all-star goalie.

With Brochu, the Knights had a .690 winning percentage and were in contention for the top seed in the Western Conference. Without him, they’ve played under .500, struggling to score enough to make up for the significant increase in goals against. 

It’s still unclear if, or when, Brochu will return from injury, as the Knights have remained mum on the subject, but the goalie has been skating and working out with the club. And captain Luke Evangelista is hopeful, if not confident, they’ll get their starter back during the team’s playoff run. 

“There’s nothing set in stone yet, but he seems really positive about where he’s at, so hopefully we’ll get him back at some point in the playoffs.”

Even if Brochu doesn’t return, Evangelista feels confident the Knights have what it takes to go deep in the playoffs. They’ve been honing their defensive game in the five weeks without their star goalie, and they’ve come a long way, even if it hasn’t necessarily shown up in the win-loss column. 

“We’ve been focusing on not giving (opponents) as many high, Grade-A shots and chances right in front of the slot,” he said. “When you have Brochu back there, you can get a little too comfortable or a little lazy maybe on the backcheck. But with the young guys in net, it’s not fair to them to see that many shots in high-scoring areas, so we’re focused on taking away those chances.” 

It worked against Kitchener a week ago, as the Knights came away with a 4-3 win – and limited the Rangers, their first-round playoff opponent, to 26 shots. It was a good sign for London after they’d lost four straight to Kitchener, and it was certainly a momentum booster heading into their best-of-seven series against the Rangers, which begins Thursday in London. 

And if they do get Brochu back? That focus on defense, Evangelista says, will really pay off. 

“It’ll be really helpful because we’ll be used to playing a style where we didn’t have him, and then if we keep playing that same style and you throw him back in the mix, defensively we’re looking really sound, so that would be huge.” 

Regardless of who’s in net, or who the opponent is, Evangelista says the Knights are fired up for the playoffs. With the last two postseasons canceled due to COVID-19, London only has a few members with playoff experience. Remarkably, that doesn’t include Evangelista. The 55-goal, 111-point man will be making his OHL postseason debut Thursday.

“As much as it’s coming to an end for me personally in London, at the same time it’s a new beginning because I’ve never got a chance to play in any playoff games. It’s kind of a new journey. There’s a lot of excitement in the dressing room right now.”

That excitement, the captain says, will lend itself to the type of “intensity and desperation” required in a playoff run. The focus for London’s players? Limiting mistakes and remaining “dialed in” each and every night.

“And playing like any game could be our last,” he said. “I think that’s going to be a key to success for us, and it’ll help us go a long way.”

And what about those playoff beards? The ones NHLers sport every spring.

“We’re going to try our best to do the same. We got some young guys, some young kids that maybe aren’t there yet,” Evangelista said with a laugh, “but we’ll do our best to get some playoff beards goin.”

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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LONDON VS. KITCHENER - A BREAKDOWN

Kitchener and London have met in the playoffs six times in the last 20 years, with Kitchener's only success coming in the 2010 playoffs where they needed all seven games to beat London in the second round that year.

Most recently, the two teams met in the 2016 postseason, which resulted in a second-round sweep for London en route to their Memorial Cup Championship.

London won this year’s season series 6-2-2, but most of that success came earlier in the year. The Knights were victorious in each of the first five meetings, outscoring the Rangers 28-10 over that span. The second half of the season series was a different story, though, as Kitchener won four of the five matchups, outscoring London 22-17 in the process.

The trio of Luke Evangelista (7-12--19), Antonio Stranges (7-10--17), and Sean McGurn (5-11--16) were dominant at times against the Rangers, particularly in the first half of the season.

Reid Valade did the most damage for the Rangers, with 8 goals and 15 points against London this year. Other top scorers, including Mike Petizian, Josh Serpa, and Francesco Pinelli, will be players to watch, while defensemen Justin Nolet and Roman Schmidt are likely to log big minutes on the back end for Kitchener.

Neither Evangelista or Stranges played in London's final two games of the season, as the Knights chose to rest their two most dangerous offensive weapons prior to the playoffs. In their final 17 games of the season, Evangelista had a dozen goals and 29 points, while Stranges scored 10 times and put up 28 points.

Cody Morgan went on a nice run to finish the season, scoring seven goals in his final six games to hit the 30-goal mark for the first time in his OHL career.

For better or for worse (without the injured Brochu), Owen Flores was the go-to-goalie down the stretch, starting London’s final 10 games of the season, picking up three wins and a pair of shutouts. He’ll be the one in net if Brochu isn’t a go.

The hope for the Knights, of course, has to be that Brochu returns from injury, and that would be a major difference maker in this series. London is 7-7-3-2 since Brochu went down with an ankle injury during a game on March 9. Logan Mailloux also remains out of the Knights lineup with an injury.

This season, London had an incredible ability to close out games that they were winning. The Knights were 20-0-1-0 when leading after one period, and 24-1-0-0 when they led after two periods. In games they were tied after 40 minutes, they posted an impressive 11-2-1-1 record.

OHL Playoffs - First Round (London Knights, No. 2, vs. Kitchener Rangers, No. 7)
Game 1: Thurs. April 21 (7:00pm vs. Kitchener)
Game 2: Fri. April 22 (7:00 pm vs. Kitchener)
Game 3: Sun. April 24 (2:00pm @ Kitchener)
Game 4: Tues. April 26 (7:00pm @ Kitchener)
Game 5: Sun. May 1 (2:00pm vs. Kitchener) (if necessary)
Game 6: Tues. May 3 (7:00pm @ Kitchener) (if necessary)
Game 7: Wed. May 4 (7:00pm vs. Kitchener) (if necessary)