Spitfires to face Knights in first-round of playoffs
Victory over Spirit in regular-season finale snaps team’s six-game losing streak on road
The Windsor Spitfires picked up a little momentum heading into the playoffs.
Despite three regulars missing the final game of the regular season on Saturday, the Spitfires closed things out with a 4-3 win over the Saginaw Spirit before the largest crowd in the 15-year history of the franchise at 5,815 at the Dow Event Center.
“There’s a lot of positives to take from this game that we can bring forward,” Spitfires goalie Mikey DiPietro said.
“It feels good heading into the playoffs.”
The points gave the club 90 for the season and that marks just the fifth time in the franchise’s 42-year existence the club has reached that mark and the fourth time in the last decade.
“To have 90 points is a good accomplishment, especially in the West(ern Conference),” Spitfires forward Jeremy Bracco said.
The win also snapped a sixgame losing streak on the road for the Spitfires, who will open the playoffs on the road as the fifth seed in the Western Conference.
“We get back in the winning column,” Bracco said. “Obviously, finishing fifth is not where you want to be, but you see the logjam in the west and it’s pretty impressive.”
And after a long grind to the season, Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson knew it wasn’t an easy task for his club to find motivation in a meaningless game.
“Those aren’t easy games because guys want to get to playoffs,” Thompson said. “They know where they’re at.”
As well, Logan Brown (groin), Jalen Chatfield (eye) and Julius Nattinen (flu) missed the game for the Spitfires while Saginaw, which missed the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, was trying to end the season on a positive note before a record crowd and with the emotion of honouring the team’s three graduating overage players.
“Saginaw’s going to play hard because it’s last game, they’ve got nothing to save it for, it’s a special night with the 20-year-old (overages graduating), families are in the building and we were going to get a good game out of them and we did,” Thompson said.
But Thompson also got what he wanted. He rolled four lines until late in the game, got both goalies into action and didn’t have to play defenceman Mikhail Sergachev heavy minutes.
“It was great,” Thompson said.
Windsor never trailed in the game, but didn’t have the victory secured until the final buzzer.
Windsor’s Daniel Robertson sprung Aaron Luchuk on a breakaway for a short-handed goal. Saginaw tied the game when C.J. Garcia’s attempt to put the puck in the corner bounced off the leg of Windsor defenceman Austin McEneny and past DiPietro. In the final minute of the period, Cristiano DiGiacinto tipped home a Sean Day point shot to put the Spitfires up for good at 2-1.
Bracco picked off a dump in that Spirit goalie Evan Cormier was unable to handle behind the net and fed Luchuk in front to make it 3-1 for Windsor.
Shortly after, Thompson pulled DiPietro, who had stopped 21-of22 shots, for Mario Culina, who stopped 25-of-27 shots as Windsor was outshot 49-26.
“I felt big and back to my old self,” said DiPietro, who was pulled on Thursday after giving up five goals.
Markus Niemelainen’s powerplay goal got Saginaw within 3-2 after 40 minutes, but Bracco restored Windsor’s two-goal lead early in the third period.
Niemelainen’s second goal of the game got the Spirit to within a goal again, but the Spirit could not get the equalizer with nearly 100 seconds of six-on-five play with Cormier on the bench.
“We got a win going into the playoffs and because we were under siege, that’s going to happen in the playoffs and we did a great job six-on-five for the last two minutes,” Thompson said. “We gave up one shot from the points with no traffic. That’s a win.”