Knights top line puts up another dozen points on Ottawa

The 67's did everything in their power to avoid another 12-point performance from London's top line but couldn't do anything to prevent a repeat performance.

London's three-headed monster of Mitch Marner, Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk, who combined for a dozen points when the teams met in December, did likewise in a 5-1 London win this afternoon.

"They beat us up last time and they beat us up today pretty good too," said Jeff Brown.  "When it's special teams, we're allowing them to play pond hockey, and they're a team that you can't play river hockey with."

Ottawa did manage to slow the pace down through 20 minutes and keep it tight, and they did outshoot the Knights, but a 4-for-6 London powerplay did them in.

"I don't know about some of those penalties, but at the end of the day you can't give the ref a chance to make calls like that," adds the bench boss, who saw Jeremiah Addison take a roughing penalty after their lone goal and Connor Graham sit 17 minutes for instigating a fight.

Matchup Game

Ottawa's top pairing of Jake Middleton and Nevin Guy combined for 16 even-strength shifts, 12 of them against Tkachuk-Dvorak-Marner.

London's top line only had three even-strength shifts away from them, and had two breakaways on them.

"5-on-5 I thought they did well," added Brown, also mentioning he didn't have a go-to shutdown unit up front.

With the lack of recent secondary scoring, the 67's know that their top line will likely be on the receiving end of such treatment down the stretch.

They also aren't likely to play too many more lines as dynamic as the one they saw this afternoon.