CREDIT: TERRY WILSON/OHL IMAGES
Gemel Smith adds valuable scoring to the Knights.

Eleven wins out of a possible 12 in February. That's a statement in any sporting league, let alone the Ontario Hockey League.

The London Knights appear to have found a groove of late.

Is it helpful? Yes.

Will it be of much use in the near future? Possibly.

You see, while the Knights have been on a tear, so have their Midwest rivals the Guelph Storm. Now atop the Western Conference, the Storm went 9-3 during February, good for 99 points.

The Erie Otters, well, they've slipped up a little, sitting at 94 points, just one ahead of the Knights' 93.

Where the Knights have benefitted of late is having a potent offensive outburst. They bombarded the Sarnia Sting with 20 goals in a 24- hour span. And they've been scoring five or more goals on a number of occasions during the recent run.

The difference?

London isn't over-relying on their top guns to deliver. Yes, you want your Max Domis, your Bo Horvats and your Chris Tierneys to amass as many points as possible, but that won't get you far in the playoffs.

Instead the Knights have gotten secondary scoring from Gemel Smith, Josh Anderson, Brett Welychka and the Rupert twins.

Take, for instance, the game against Oshawa on February 17. The Generals lead the Eastern Conference with 77 points, and did their best to stifle the Knights' top trio. London came away with a 6-3 win, including four goals and a combined eight points from the trio of Smith, Brett Welychka and Michael McCarron.

“We know every team's going to match up hard against Domi's line and the Ruperts' line,” Smith told the London Free Press in a February 17 article entitled “Generals target top unit, so other lines fill net.”

“Not many teams are as deep as us, so we definitely try to take advantage of that.”

The message appeared loud and clear, try to match lines with the Knights, and they will still outwit you.

It was déjà vu, at least it seemed to be against the Erie Otters on February 26. Down 3-0, London responds with five straight goals. They figured out their gameplan, and prevented the Otters from completing the season sweep.

It finally seemed to click for London. Ask anyone on the team, and they will tell you they'd rather finish third — not fourth.

A third-place finish in the west could avoid a second-round playoff matchup with Guelph. No, save that contest for the OHL west finals.

At the time of writing, we were 62 games into the OHL season. Playoff season is right around the corner. You want your team firing on all cylinders. Much of this Knights roster has the experience from the past two successful runs.

Anthony Stolarz is back from his horrific injury. Jake Patterson was mostly effective during the longest starting spell of his OHL career.

“He's learned to win hockey games,” goalie coach Bill Dark said. “The way to win games is making key saves at the right point in the game and being able to overcome rocky starts, either by himself or the team.”

He is one of the reasons the Knights are in the middle of a stirring winning streak. One of the reasons why the Knights propelled themselves closer to their illustrious Midwest division rivals.

Moving into playoffs? It's still anybody's game.