Spitfires honour former captain with key victory

Some of the worst teams in the Ontario Hockey League have provided the biggest challenges for the Windsor Spitfires this season.

The Guelph Storm, which has the worst record in the Western Conference, blanked the Spitfires through 40 minutes on Saturday.

The Spitfires finally found some offence in the third period with three unanswered goals for a 3-1 win over the Storm before a season-high crowd of 6,168 on Mickey Renaud Night in which the club honoured its former captain on the ninth anniversary of his death.

The Spitfires clinched a playoff spot in the process.

“We were down 1-0 and there’s a thousand things running through your head, but we just got some bounces and we just got rolling from there,” said Spitfires defenceman Austin McEneny, who had a pair of assists.

The Spitfires weren’t playing poorly. The club held Guelph to just 16 shots in the game while firing 31, but a couple of shots that went off the post and the play of Storm goalie Anthony Popovich kept Guelph in position for the upset win.

“Their goalie played well,” said Spitfires goalie Mikey DiPietro, who made 15 saves. “It took us a while to get going.”

After a scoreless opening period, Guelph held a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes when rookie defenceman Ryan Merkley’s shot hit Windsor defenceman Tyler Nother and went in over DiPietro’s shoulder.

Windsor got its opening in an unusual fashion. Over-age forward Cristiano DiGiacinto was handed a head checking major and game misconduct for a hit on Guelph’s Nic Sicoly, but a minor penalty to Guelph’s Matt Hotchkiss shortly after had the teams playing fouron-four hockey.

With more room on the ice, Windsor defenceman Mikahil Sergachev drove down the right wing and put a backhander off Popovich and in.

Jeremiah Addison put the Spitfires up 2-1 and a blast by Luke Boka gave the Spitfires some breathing room late as Windsor won for just the fourth time in 17 games when trailing after two periods.

“It’s something special,” said DiPietro, who is from Amherstburg and was only eight years old when Renaud died from an undetected heart problem.

“I remember it vaguely. I was so young, but he had an impact on the city and the organization. You feel for his family, but it was a really nice tribute to him.”