Spitfires defeat Knights to wrap up OHL’s top seed in Western Conference

Alex Christopoulos recorded a hat trick and added an assist as the Windsor Spitfires defeated the London Knights 6-3 on Friday night at Budweiser Gardens.

The victory clinched first place and the number one seed in the Western Conference for Windsor.

As Midwest Division champions London will have the second seed in the West entering the post-season.

Christopoulos scored twice in the opening period for the Spitfires. The first came 1:23 into the game on a feed from Rodwin Dionicio and the second happened short-handed at 16:13. Those goals and two huge saves from Joey Costanzo in net had Windsor ahead 2-0 through 20 minutes.

The Spitfires added to their lead in the second period as Londoner Brett Harrison put a puck at the Knight net from the blue line on a Spitfires man advantage and it was tipped in by Shane Wright.

The Knights continued to run into roadblocks at the other end of the ice. Max McCue left the penalty box and joined Brody Crane on a breakaway. The pair got the puck to the Windsor net and got it underneath Costanzo only to have it go wide of the Spitfires net.

Windsor came right back up the ice and Christopoulos completed his hat trick with his 49th goal of the year and the Spitfires found themselves ahead 4-0.

Zach Bowen replaced Brett Brochu in the London goal and the Knights managed to break through.

The puck slid to the Windsor net off of faceoff to begin a London power play and Easton Cowan tapped in his 17th goal of the season and it was 4-1.

Just over two minutes later on another Knights man advantage, George Diaco put home a rebound for his 26th of the season and moved London to within a pair heading into the final 20 minutes.

The race to the first goal of the third period was won by the Spitfires as Christopoulos continued his big night by blocking a clearing attempt on the right side of the Knights zone and snapping the puck at the London net. It was tipped in by Noah Morneau and Windsor’s lead was three once more.

Diaco’s second of the game cut that lead back to two goals but that’s as close as the Knights would get.

OHL scoring leader Matt Maggio kept his point streak alive and boosted it to 13 games as he finished the scoring into an empty net with 2:34 remaining in the game.

London outshot the Spitfires 40-28.

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Tkachuk closing in on rare history

Matthew Tkachuk picked up his 62nd assist against former teammate Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 7-2 loss on March 23. The point put the former Knight three away from his second consecutive 100 point season.

Tkachuk would join Jimmy Carson, Wayne Gretzky and Mike Rogers as the only NHL players to hit 100 points in back-to-back years with two different teams. Teemu Selanne and Bernie Nicholls recorded 100 points in consecutive seasons playing for two different teams but they were each traded to their second team part-way through year two.

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John Carlson returns

On March 23, former Knights defenceman John Carlson played his first game with the Washington Capitals since Dec. 23 as Carlson scored once and added an assist in a 6-1 Washington victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Carlson missed exactly three months recovering from a scary injury that happened when he was hit in the head by a Brendon Dillon slap shot. Carlson suffered a fracture to his skull and a severed temporal artery.

Read more: London Knights edge Sarnia to capture inaugural Battle of 402 series

Up next

London and Windsor meet up again tomorrow night at the WFCA Centre in Windsor, Ont.

The Knights lead the season series 3-2 heading into the sixth and final regular season meeting between the clubs.