Addison’s hat-trick helps send Spits straight to Memorial Cup final

WINDSOR, Ont. — The Windsor Spitfires are headed to the final of the 99th MasterCard Memorial Cup after another tournament first for the host team.

The Spitfires shutdown the high-octane offence of the Ontario Hockey League champion Erie Otters for a 4-2 win on Wednesday before 6,136 fans at the WFCU Centre in the final game of the round robin. The win sends the Spitfires directly to Sunday’s championship final and the club becomes the first team in Canadian Hockey League history to accomplish that feat after being knocked out in the first round of its league playoffs.

“It’s made us who we are,” Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson said.

The Otters set a tournament record on Monday by putting a dozen goals up on the Saint John Sea Dogs in a 12-5 win and Erie head coach Kris Knoblauch was wary of a possible letdown after such a lopsided win.

Windsor had plenty of jump right from the opening faceoff and Gabriel Vilardi forced a turnover behind the Erie net and fed Jeremiah Addison in the slot, who beat Troy Timpano to put the Spitfires on the board first less than six minutes into the game.

Addison pushed Windsor’s lead to 2-0 late in a period with a wrist shot that eluded Timpano, who may have been partially screened on the play.

The Spitfires used a two-man power play to extend the lead to 3-0 just 43 seconds into the second period as Mikhail Sergachev’s point shot beat Timpano, who was being screened by Graham Knott.

But the Spitfires would have to ride goalie Mikey DiPietro the rest of the period as the Otters held a 16-5 edge in shots, but could not find the back of the net.

But the Otters did not go quietly in the third period. Kyle Maksimovich crashed the net and put Erie on the board just before the midway mark of the third period.

Addison added his third of the game to give Windsor a much-needed cushion and Taylor Raddysh added a late goal to complete the scoring.

“It’s huge,” Sergachev said. “You want to go right to the final. You don’t want to play that extra game.”

Windsor will get that chance on Sunday to play for its third Memorial Cup title in nine years while the Otters must beat the Sea Dogs to get another chance at the Spitfires.