London Knights must win at home tonight in Game 5 to stay alive in playoffs

London Knights in London, Ont. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

It’s another win-or-go-home game for the London Knights.

The defending Memorial Cup Champions will play Game 5 of their first round OHL playoff series against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Friday night at Canada Life Place.

“We need to put game six out of your mind and just worry about preparing for tonight,” said Rob Simpson, Knights associate general manager.

“It’s always nice playing in front of our home crowd. The fans are going to be behind us and hopefully our players can feed off that energy and bring their best game.”

A Ryan Brown hattrick gave the Knights a 4-1 win in Game 4 and kept them alive in the series.

‘This is what you dream of growing up wanting to play in the OHL playing in playoffs and in these big games,” Brown told CTV News prior to the series.

Knights head coach Dale Hunter will now have to decide which goaltender will get the start in front of the home crowd Friday.

Aleksei Medvedev stopped 25 of 26 shots in game four for the victory. He only made two partial appearances down the stretch in the entire month of March.

Sebastian Gatto has been getting the bulk of the work, including the start in the first three games of the series.

He posted 2.74 goals against average and took his team to overtime twice, but London didn’t score enough to win any of those contests.

Should London pull of a victory Friday, the series will shift back to the SOO Sunday night for a 7:07 pm. Puck drop for game six.

A potential Game 7 would be Tuesday in London.