'We believe we’re the strongest team': Knights prepare for long playoff run
Budweiser Gardens is about to be rockin’.
"It's the best time of the year,” said Rick Steadman, Knights assistant coach. “We’ve got the fans coming in and they're going to be loud. It's just an exciting time.”
The Knights slumped down the stretch — which cost them first place in the Western Conference — but with wins Saturday and Sunday they finished second overall.
They now believe the pendulum has swung as they head into their first round playoff series with the seventh-seeded Owen Sound Attack.
“Those two last wins were huge for us,” said Landon Sim, who had 14 goals in 56 games this year for London. “The morale has changed after those wins. We kind of had a rough stretch here last couple of weeks, but that win on Sunday against Kitchener felt awesome.”
“Momentum going into playoffs is huge, and I think we've definitely built some over the past few games,” added Sam Dickinson, a Knights rookie defenceman. “We've played well as a team, we've done the little things right, and we just got to continue to do that into the playoffs.”
In addition, they will carry a bit of swagger too.
“We believe we’re the best team in the league,” said Dickinson. “From the guys up front, to the ‘d’ [defence] and in the net, we believe we're the strongest team.”
In Owen Sound, the Attack are taking on the role of underdog, even though they split the season series with the Knights 3-3.
They were decimated by injuries all season, but are getting healthy at the right time.
“I think with our team we’ve lost probably about 230 or more man games to injury,” said Greg Walters, Attack head coach. “We're slowly getting back here and hoping that we could have a full lineup for the first time in a long time. There's no better place to the play than ‘The Bud’ on Friday night.”
London bowed out in round one last season to Kitchener, which was a huge disappointment to not only the fans, but the entire organization.
“Losing game seven last year was one of the toughest experiences we have ever been through,” said Sim. “We don't want to go through something like that again. So, we have a lot of guys that were in that situation last year. We just kind of want to get some revenge and not let that happen again.”
The Knights host game one Friday and game two on Sunday before the series shifts back to Owen Sound next week.
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