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2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup: London Knights get second win after Oil Kings can’t find second wind; post-game questions

SHAWINIGAN, Que. — The London Knights secured at least second place in the MasterCard Memorial Cup round-robin by smothering the Edmonton Oil Kings 4-1.

With the win, London needs a Saint John victory over the Shawinigan Cataractes on Wednesday night to go directly to the final on Sunday. A Cataractes victory would put the Knights into the semifinal.

London was full value for the win, coming out ahead 16-10 on the Cam Charron Chance-o-Meter. Edmonton seemed stuck in the same old-same old. The WHL reps fell behind in the first five minutes for the second night in a row and got stuck in chase mode.

Then they were on the wrong end of some puck luck. With the score 2-1 in the second period, Edmonton Oilers-drafted centre Travis Ewanyk wired a shot that went under London goalie Michael Houser's arm and hit the post. The puck ricocheted out to Max Domi, who carried the other way and set up Greg McKegg to complete a two-goal swing.

That not only ended McKegg's 40-day goal drought but was turnabout from a similar sequence vs. Shawinigan on Sunday. That time, McKegg's linemate Jared Knight hit the crossbar and the Cataractes got the puck and scored for a two-goal lead.

"That was the first thing I said when they hit the crossbar, 'watch, we're going to score,' " said London's Andreas Athanasiou, who had one assist. "It ended up being exactly like the other night but we were on the other side of it ... The hockey gods are funny sometimes."

On with the post-game questions!

Was London that efficient or was Edmonton, playing for the second night in a row, that ineffective?

The credit might go about 60/40 Knights good, Oil Kings mediocre. Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal, whose team is down to its last leg, made a passionate plea for his team to play better. The thorough efforts that defined their run in the WHL have been absent this week.

"There's only so many ways you can play hockey," said Keegan Lowe, who got the lone Edmonton goal at 19:57 of the opening period after the Knights relaxed their guard with time running out. "It's on us. We need to be a lot better, that's the bottom line. If we would have won tonight and got help we could have been straight to the finals. Now we got the long climb but the goal is still in sight. It's still 100 per cent unreachable but it will take a lot of determination.

"We've killed teams this year in the offensive zone using our speed to cycle the puck, and our depth," the Carolina Hurricanes draft choice said. "We rolled four lines most of the year and they couldn't keep up with us. We're not doing it right now. We have certain guys only going at certain times and taking shifts off. Props to [Curtis] Lazar, [Henrik] Samuelsson and [Stephane] Legault, but we need everybody."

That was echoed by Laxdal.

"We have to do a better job of showing them who we are and representing the Western Hockey League. Curtis Lazar, Henrik Samuelsson and Stephane Legault have been outstanding and we need another nine forwards to step up and join the parade."

How much was fatigue a factor for Edmonton?

Probably less than some would make of it, but then again each team which has played two days in a row has lost the second game. Edmonton wouldn't use it an excuse.

"It's Memorial Cup, you can't be saying you don't have legs for two in two," captain Mark Pysyk said. "We're all 16 to 20 years old, we got a lot of energy.

"Everyone wants to win the Memorial Cup," he added. "It's just little things that we haven't been doing the past few games that we need to figure out how to do."

What did London do well?

The Knights still couldn't score on the power play (0-for-4 to drop to 2-for-16 on the week with three short-handed goals against), although they were crisper moving the puck around the zone. They just had more in the tank than Edmonton and played most of the game in their end.

"I think we were fresh while they were playing back-to-back games," centre Vladislav Namestnikov said. "We got pucks deep and we cycled and got chances and capitalized."

Is it true the Knights' hotel in Trois-Rivières brought in an extra ice machine specifically for use by Austin Watson?

It wouldn't surprise you if they did, would it?

"I kind of throw myself stupidly in front of some shots so maybe it looks like I'm blocking a little more," the defensive forward told Sportsnet in an on-ice interview.

Was the ice any better?

It rained cats and dogs in Shawinigan on Tuesday, which ironic since the Cats and Dogs (Shawinigan and Saint John) were not playing. (If that joke doesn't fly for you, well, Cam Charron wrote it.) Centre Bionest didn't feel quite as arid thanks to the decreased humidity outdoors and the CHL's efforts to weather-proof the rink.

"It was cooler and there weren't as many holes in the ice." Namestnikov said. "It was frustrating the first two games but we're all in the same conditions."

The bad ice from the first four games has made the case for the CHL requiring the tournament host committee to employ an ice expert. It could even be part of the bid itself starting with the 2014 tournament, which is the next to be awarded. The verdict among the players was that the ice was choppy but less like half-frozen porridge.

"You can't really stickhandle the puck very much near the end of a period," Athanasiou said. "It's good overall. It's fast ice but it still gets chewed up really fast."

Granted, there were fewer people around with only 3,955 turning out to watch a game that didn't include either QMJHL team. There could be another thousand souls crammed in Wednesday for Shawinigan-Saint John.

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