The London Knights beat the Saginaw Spirit, improving their playoff record to 10-0

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Two Rodwin Dionicio goals.

That’s all the London Knights have surrendered to the Saginaw Spirit in the first two games of the OHL’s Western Conference final after another 3-1 victory before 9,036 Sunday at Budweiser Gardens. The Memorial Cup hosts loaded up with some of the best forwards in junior hockey this season and their only offense so far has been from a veteran defenseman.

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“They got some opportunities and when they did, (London goaltender Michael) Simpson was big,” Knights head coach Dale Hunter said. “It’s not truly a man-to-man (approach). It’s a squeeze-down and then fan out after. A few teams in the National Hockey League use it and everyone has a different system.

“No matter what system you use, it’s up to the players to execute it. They execute it well.”

The Spirit weren’t completely comfortable in the Bud environment on Friday. They felt much better the second time around, finally got the power-play going and generated some Grade ‘A’ scoring chances.

But the final tally still showed a grand total of 18 shots on net, including only seven in London’s lock-down third period.

“We have to score on our chances,” Saginaw coach Chris Lazary said. “Bottom line. It’s the game of hockey. We had some good looks and didn’t score. We don’t really give a crap who scores this time of the year.

“We’re not looking at numbers.”

They aren’t pretty. London winger Kasper Halttunen has outscored the Spirit 3-2 by himself in the series. Ruslan Gazizov, the Knights’ leading goal-getter in the regular season, struck for his first two in his seventh post-season game on Sunday.

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“He came back from injury and it takes time,” Dale Hunter said of the Russian forward. “He feels good about himself and confident enough to make some plays.”

The Spirit are down but, of course, not out. Both teams were traveling to Michigan Sunday night ahead of Game 3 Monday.

“When you’re down 2-0, it becomes mental,” Lazary said. “We have to make sure the belief is in the room. We did a lot of good things in the second half of the game. We’re a different animal at home. They haven’t beaten us in our rink this year and we’re looking forward to going back.”

DEFENSIVE DEPTH: The Knights are getting it done defensively without blue-line stalwart Jackson Edward, who missed his second straight game for personal reasons. Dale Hunter doesn’t know yet if the Bruins pick will be available Monday.

Fellow veteran d-man Alec Leonard is being evaluated but won’t play for the foreseeable future after suffering a serious-looking leg injury from crashing into the boards Friday. That means big minutes for Oliver Bonk, Isaiah George and Sam Dickinson meshed in with three rookies.

“We’ll have to deal with it,” Bonk, the Flyers first-rounder, said. “There’s nothing else we can do and we can’t whine about it. Hopefully, we get some of our guys back soon.”

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Rookie Jared Woolley saw more action, first-year Henry Brzustewicz moved from forward to his natural blue-line spot and Ilderton’s Noah Jenken suited up for his first game since the Junior B Strathroy Rockets were eliminated a month ago. The forwards and Simpson are a big part of it, too.

“We pride ourselves on team defence,” Dickinson said. “It’s something the coaches preach. We have some of the best defensive forwards in the league. They’re sacrificing points and chances to make sure they’re in the right spot and playing the right way.”

The Spirit feels like they are close to cracking that frustrating code.

“If we beat one of our guys, somebody else is going to be open because they come over (to help),” Saginaw forward Joey Willis said. “If we can keep attacking that, we’ll be OK. I thought we did really (well) in the second and third going at them. You see we got the chances and didn’t put it in the net but next game, we definitely will.”

Bonk and Co. are operating at a very high level, though.

“He’s incredible,” London forward Max McCue said of the star defender. “We see it every day in practice. Every time you go out one-on-one, you’re not really doing too much. Credit to how good he is and how hard he’s worked to get to where he is now.”

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AROUND THE RING: The Knights won their 17th straight game dating back to the regular season. They are 6-0 on home ice and 10-0 overall in the playoffs It’s one of the best post-season starts in OHL history and tops the 2005 Knights, who went 9-0 before losing one game in Kitchener in the third round. . . Saginaw’s high-scoring d-man Zayne Parekh was a late scratch and missed his third straight game with an injury. “He’s close,” Lazary said. “Real close.” Same with goaltender Andrew Oke, although the coach would not reveal if they would play Monday. . . Saginaw prospect Carson Harmer of St. Marys made his OHL debut Sunday in the big playoff game. The 17-year-old recorded 65 points this past season with the GOJHL’s Stratford Warriors. . . Halttunen scored in his fifth straight playoff outing and has winning goals in four of London’s past five games. The 18-year-old Finn has become a clutch performer when it counts the most. . . London surrendered 13 goals in two visits to Saginaw in the regular season, but both of those were before the world junior and Christmas break. The Knights are much more defensively responsible now. . . Saginaw has one of the more unique goal songs you will hear in hockey. A few years ago, Lazary and GM Dave Drinkill selected the great Whitney Houston’s 1987 hit ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).’ The Knights want to make sure it is played infrequently Monday and Wednesday.

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OHL PLAYOFFS

Knights 3, Spirits 1
(London leads best-of-seven Western conference final 2-0)
London goals: Ruslan Gazizov (2), Kasper Halttunen
Saginaw goal: Rodwin Dionicio

Next: Game 3 is Monday, 7:05 pm at the Dow Event Center.

Sunday at Budweiser Gardens

Knights 3, Spirits 1

First period
1st, London, Gazizov 1 (McCue) 5:01
2. London, Halttunen 9 (Barkey, Cowan) 13:50 (pp)
Penalties – Hache, Sag (high-sticking) 2:27, Dionicio, Sag (roughing), Haight, Sag, Sim, Ldn (slashing) 5:59, Hay, Sag (high-sticking) 12:59, Cowan, Ldn (cross-checking) 18:48.

Second period
3. Saginaw, Dionicio 5 (Christopoulos, Mangone) 0:32 (pp)
Penalties – Dionicio, Sag (slashing) 2:26, ​​Bonk, Ldn (hooking) 9:42.

Third period
4. London, Gazizov 2 (Cowan, O’Reilly) 18:54 (en)
Penalty – Sim, Ldn (tripping) 2:51.

Shots on goal by
Saginaw 4 7 7–18
London 11 12 4–27

Power plays: Saw 1-3. Lines 1-4.

Goalies: Lalonde, Sag (L, 3-5). Simpson, Ldn (W, 10-0).

Referees – Scott Ferguson, Joe Monette. Linesmen – Ryan Card, David Milne.

Attendance – 9,036 (9,036).

Three stars: 1. Ruslan Gazizov, Knights; 2. Michael Simpson, Knights; 3. Oliver Bonk, Knights

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