Spits make it three straight wins
Victory over Saginaw puts team one point behind division-leading Hounds
It’s a winning streak that has been a grind for the Windsor Spitfires.
Thursday’s 4-1 win over the Saginaw Spirit before 4,756 at the WFCU Centre marked just the sixth time this season the club has strung together three straight wins.
However, this three-game set has not been one where the Spitfires have blown out the opposition, but simply fought to the finish for two points.
“I think it’s good,” Spitfires forward Aaron Luchuk said. “There are no bad habits when you play tough games like that.
“The west (Western Conference) being so tough, I don’t think there’s any easy nights whether it’s the top five teams in the west or the bottom five teams. It’s going to be a grind and will be for the next 11 games going into the playoffs.”
In all three wins, the Spitfires have trailed. On Thursday, it was Saginaw defenceman Keaton Middleton’s shot from the point beating Windsor goalie Mikey DiPietro through a crowd to open the scoring. “We could have played better than we did but we scored some timely goals,” Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson said.
What the Spitfires have also got in this stretch is secondary scoring and the club’s third line of Adam Laishram, Luke Boka and Graham Knott were again key contributors in the win.
Boka picked off a pass and fed Laishram in front to get the Spitfires even before the end of the first period despite a 17-5 advantage in shots.
“There was no panic,” Luchuk said. “We’ve got a good team and we know we can score goals. Their goalie (Brendan Bonello) played well in the first and kept them in the game, but we broke through.”
Thompson again did some line shuffling giving Gabriel Vilardi a rare start at his natural position of centre and moving Luchuk, who is normally a centre, to wing.
Vilardi’s faceoff win went to Luchuk, who scored from the faceoff circle put the Spitfires up 2-1 after 40 minutes.
“I don’t mind it,” Luchuk said of being on the wing. “I’m playing with good players and easy to adjust off them.
“We have such a deep team, guys
get put in different situations trying to find more chemistry and boost our goals. It’s a little different, but something you have to get used to and working out fine.”
It wasn’t until after killing off a Saginaw power play that Windsor got some breathing room. Defenceman Mikhail Sergachev made a perfect feed to Knott as he stepped out of the box after serving a slashing penalty and he walked in alone to give the Spitfires a twogoal cushion.
“We know our penalty kill is good and we know if we can do what we usually do on the (kill) they should score and ride the momentum like Knott did,” Spitfires defenceman Sean Day said. “We never really get down on ourselves.”
Vilardi added a late goal as the Spitfires moved back to within a point of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for first place in the West Division.
“I think we’ve played really good the last three games,” Day said. “The last two games, we shut their team down and I think we can keep riding that.”