2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup: London Knights have little to hang heads over

SHAWINIGAN, Que. — At least it was a good goal that did in the London Knights.

The MasterCard Memorial Cup final of the tautest tournament in relevant memory had to end the way it did, with London playing textbook Hunter Hockey until the dam burst when Shawinigan's Anton Zlobin rapped in the Cup winner 17:51 into overtime. That is the damnedest part of it for the Knights to take into the off-season. They came out ahead on scoring chances, blocked more shots and kept composed in an arena where the constant bleating of airhorns had much of the national television audience diving for the mute button like their teeth were on fire. Yet, at the end of the day, history will say Shawinigan 2, London 1.

Fittingly, star defenceman Scott Harrington was the first Knights player to emerge from the dressing room. He's probably the next Knights captain since his D partner, hulking Montreal Canadiens prospect Jarred Tinordi, will be turning pro. The message was clear: the Knights will reload for another shot at the throne.

"What are you going to say after something like that?" said Harrington, who likely logged close to 40 minutes' ice time only to come up short. "Everyone's at a loss for words. It's going to sting for a while but there's nothing we can do about it now."

"We executed well and definitely it doesn't make you feel any better knowing that you played the game that you wanted and didn't get the outcome that you're looking for," the 19-year-old shutdown defenceman added. "It's tough but that's the way it goes sometimes. It was a quick game and the guys were going as hard as they could. We had some good chances and their goalie [Gabriel Girard] made some great saves."

Hunter: 'It just hurts'

The Knights stuck to the formula that carried them to the Ontario Hockey League's best record and the franchise's second J. Ross Robertson Cup, which they clinched by flummoxing and outworking the headliner-heavy Niagara IceDogs — Ryan Strome! Dougie Hamilton! Freddie Hamilton! Jamie Oleksiak! — in a five-game championship series. Yet they couldn't beat Shawinigan either time in its boisterous barn. Sure, they're a young team and the likes of Max Domi, Andreas Athanasiou, Olli Määttä, Bo Horvat and twins Matt and Ryan Rupert could be back in the tournament in 2013 and '14. But this was not a night for the ol' wait-till-next-year. That's not in the London Knights' emotional constitution.

"I don't know if it's a character builder," coach-GM Mark Hunter, said not giving one media questioner his easy cliché. "It just hurts right now to lose like this."

London struck first Sunday when Austin Watson, another of the graduating veterans, put a pass out from behind the goal right on the tape of 17-year-old superpest Ryan Rupert's stick early in the first period. It seemed like a standard opener from the Knights' script. Get the opening goal, quiet the crowd, get the opponent off its game. What worked all season in the OHL and against two league champions, though, didn't work vs. the Cataractes. Shawinigan was likely too well-conditioned — as star defenceman Brandon Gormley put it, "we might have felt tired but our legs were never heavy once we got on the ice" — to feel physical fatigue, which usually begets mental mistakes.

Zlobin levelled 3:01 into the second by deflecting a Kirill Kabanov shot; London's Michael Houser, the CHL goalie of the year and runner-up for the country's top player award, got some of the shot but not quite enough. It was back and forth after that, parry and thrust, breathtaking misses at each end.

Ran into hot goalie

The Knights came out ahead 29-20 in scoring chances, including a 7-7 split in the sudden-victory session. They got in front of 36 Cataractes shots while Shawinigan blocked 22. Yet Cataractes goalie Gabriel Girard, in his final junior game, took his game up a notch. Some observers in the press gallery had to give up counting how many game-saving saves he made. There was a big glove stop on 45-goal man Seth Griffith in the second, plus several on Watson.

Girard, with 35 stops on 36 shots, became the only goalie to be named one of the three stars in any game of the tournament. Pretty sweet for someone who was a part-time starter all season and didn't get the call for the opener.

"He played unbelievable," said Gormley. "Wthout his performance tonight and in the last game [the 7-4 semifinal win over Saint John], we would not be out here, He made a couple of big, big saves."

There was nothing the Knights could point to as a deal-breaker. Houser, playing his 85th game of the season, stopped 35-of-37 shots. The Knights also didn't overextend their star goalie, though. It was just case of Zlobin scoring on both of his dangerous chances in the game.

"Wasn't the goaltender's fault," Hunter said. "I thought we didn't give them much, In the second, I thought they had a little better period, in the first, I thought we were good. In the third I thought we had better chances and in the overtime they had a couple more chances than we did.

It will still go down as a championship season in London regardless of Sunday's finish.

"We played hard the whole playoffs," Hunter said. "They gave a lot of blood, sweat for the organization and the London Knights sweater."

In time, the Knights will accept they just didn't get to control of the narrative this time. Even though they were a young team, they end up being the Oklahoma Sooners to the Cataractes' Boise State. Coach Éric Veilleux's club gets to write the history after becoming the second team to come through the tiebreaker and win and first since the 1999 Ottawa 67's to win it all after losing in Round 2 of their league playoffs. It was an odd tournament that way, where the extra rest that's the spoils of winning the round-robin didn't help London.

"The 30 days they had off, they probably recharged their batteries," Harrington said, referring to Shawinigan's 'reboot' between the QMJHL playoffs and the tournament. "At the same time they were coming off a 3-in-3 [to reach the final]. So we weren't sure really what to expect but we knew they'd come out hard."

The Knights stand to lose 19-year-olds Watson, Tinordi, Vladislav Namestnikov, Jared Knight and Greg McKegg, who have each been taken in the first three rounds of the NHL draft. Houser might get a free-agent opportunity to go pro next fall. Their young core will only improve, though.

Getting this far was more than anyone in southwest Ontario expected late last summer. Niagara and Plymouth were pegged as OHL preseason favourites. How would the Knights have replied if they had been told they would lose the Memorial Cup in overtime, which last happened in 2001?

"We'd have been thrilled," Harrington said. "Not thrilled that we didn't win, but thrilled for the opportunity."

Another one will come along soon for London.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.