Three third-period goals sink Spitfires
Centre Brown takes warm-up but is late scratch in 5-3 setback in Sarnia
SARNIA Under normal conditions, the Windsor Spitfires have struggled all season to find offensive chemistry.
Injuries, suspensions and illness have forced the Spitfires to juggle and re-create lines throughout the season and the last thing the team needed on Friday was a lastminute scratch from the team’s No. 1 centre.
Logan Brown took the pre-game skate, but was pulled with a groin problem shortly before the game against the Sarnia Sting.
That forced Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson to juggle three different lines and it was a struggle all night for the Spitfires to try to get comfortable with the new look. “It was tough,” Thompson aid. The Spitfires looked out of sync for much of the game and it was only miscues by the Sting that allowed Windsor to hang around, but the club once again imploded late against the Sting in a 5-3 loss before 3,643 at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
After a scoreless opening period, the Sting opened the scoring when Jeff King’s point shot hit a stick and bat Mario Culina over the shoulder.
With less than three minutes left in the period, Windsor got a break when Sarnia defenceman Kelton Hatcher locked up at the point and could only watch helplessly as Spitfire Graham Knott skated past him and in alone to tie the game.
Jaden Lindo scored from close range to put Sarnia back up 2-1, but another Sting turnover in their own end landed on the stick of Hayden McCool and he scored with 12 seconds to play in the period to tie the game at 2-2.
A penalty call at the buzzer to end the second period put Windsor on the power play to start the third period and Gabriel Vilardi gave Windsor its only lead of the game 20 seconds into the period.
“We were right there and we got a lead,” Thompson said.
But holding a lead against the Sting has proven incredibly difficult for the Spitfires, who wasted a third-period lead for the third time this season against Sarnia.
The Sting are clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference and three comeback wins over the Spitfires have put the club in position to make the post-season.
Thompson felt momentum shifted when Spitfires defenceman Mikhail Serg ac hev took a penalty for slashing the stick out of a Sarnia player’s hands
“It’s pure selfishness,” Thompson said. “That’s the game plan. Get on him and he’ll take a bad penalty.”
The Spitfires killed off the play, but a turnover shortly after ended up in the net off the stick of Drake Rymsha.
Windsor also killed off another penalty to Adam Laishram, for boarding, but Adam Ruzicka scored 13 seconds after it expired to put Sarnia up for good.
Before the Spitfires could get Culina to the bench for an extra attacker, Rymsha cashed another Windsor turnover to seal the win.
“We should close that out, but because of selfishness, we didn’t and that’s what happens in the other games, too,” Thompson said.
The loss, coupled with Sault Ste. Marie’s win at home, officially clinched the West Division-title for the Greyhounds.