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How London Knights outlasted battered Barrie Colts to win memorable OHL final

The London Knights will return to the MasterCard Memorial Cup, deal with it.

A bajillion variables that affect the outcome of a best-of-7 championship series. Yet you knew it would end that way for the green-clad Knights and the Barrie Colts, playing the black knight in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, with a dramatic goal that London pulled from parts unknown for a 3-2 Game 7 win. You also knew that Bo Horvat, who outreached Barrie's Jonathan Laser to tap in a skittering puck for the championship-winning goal with fewer than one second to play in Game 7 on Monday, would have something to do with it.

It could have gone either way, but victors rewrite the history. London beating Barrie — just like it might do at the league-office level when the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup host site is announced Tuesday — illustrates how the Knights are well worth the animus fans of about 18 OHL teams have stored up for all things green and gold. Respect and/or revile them. . Highlight the extenuating circumstances that befell Barrie, who made third-period comebacks in each of the final two games with Mark Scheifele injured and Anthony Camara suspended. Don't deny the Dale Hunter-coached Knights made enough plays both big and little to surmount a 3-1 series deficit and retain the J. Ross Robertson Cup.

The series might grow in the retelling as an epic London comeback and/or Barrie collapse for the ages. In reality, it was neither. Barrie, which lost on the last shot twice in a row, were comeback kids.

The only rule of thumb is the cliché that it takes four wins to put a team away. Even when Barrie opened a 3-1 lead, there was still a sense it was far from over. London simply had more in reserve than the typical team, whereas the Colts were beset by bad breaks:

— Hunter switched his goalies, inserting Jake Patterson for the Anthony Stolarz. Patterson, over a short stretch, was adequate over the final three games and removed the distraction of having a goalie who was scuffling.

The irony for next fall is whether the Knights will press ahead with two 19-year-old goalies who likely each believe they deserve to be a No. 1 'tender in the OHL. Patterson might have saved the village, but who knows if he sticks around

— Hunter tweaked his lines, putting Toronto Maple Leafs pick Ryan Rupert (five points over the final three games, including the Game 6 OT winner) alongside Max Domi and Seth Griffith instead of their usual left wing Alex Broadhurst. Domi also had five points in the three wins after getting just two points through the first four.

Checking-line forward Josh Anderson also returned from an injury to have an impact physically.

— Horvat, Horvat, Horvat. Along with two goals in Game 7 and his second buzzer-beater of the playoffs, The Big Quintessential also saved a goal in the third period on Friday after Patterson was pulled out of the net. Who knew he could also play goal.

— London loathers might obsess a little about whether the whistles were put away and whether that played into London's favour. Following Hunter's decrying of the Colts "diving" in Game 4, the Colts received only six power plays in games 5 through 7. London received a dozen, including four consecutive in the second of Game 5, when it tallied three times to put Barrie in a 4-0 crevasse.

The relative amount of fatigue on each side certainly played a part, but the extra energy spent killing penalties and shortening the bench certainly exacted a toll on Barrie. (Of course, it's about what a team does with its opportunities; Barrie gave up a short-handed goal to Horvat in Game 5.)

The Colts converted on their only power play in Game 7 while London was 1-for-2.

— Niederberger and the penultimate line of defence in front of him were truly superlative in the bookend games, the first two games at London and Monday's finale. In between, London had a 11.9 shooting percentage (21-for-176) against Niederberger and understudy Alex Fotinos

— Injuries and bad breaks. By series' end, Mark Scheifele was unable to play after being drilled by Josh Anderson in Game 6. Rugged left wing Anthony Camara was suspended, while he and Scheifele's linemate, playmaking right wing Zach Hall, played hurt throughout much of the last two rounds. Colts defenceman Michael Webster was out with a broken collarbone. Of course, London has injuries, too, that are likely under wraps since their season is still a going a concern.

Ultimately, it was a helluva series. London will go to Saskatoon as a much more tested team than the 2012 iteration, which lost only one game in the final two rounds of the OHL playoffs. It certainly learned enough lessons the hard way against Barrie and Plymouth.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.