Spitfires defeat Knights 3-1 at WFCU Centre
Memorial Cup banner goes up and Knights go down as veteran Spits continue to shine
The banner went up for the Windsor Spitfires and the London Knights were nowhere to be seen.
The Knights opted to stay in the dressing room Thursday as Windsor raised its third Memorial Cup championship banner in nine years.
“No, definitely not surprised,” Spitfires goalie Mikey DiPietro said of London’s decision. “If we were in their position, we wouldn’t either. It was a special night and I’ll never forget it.”
With just one win in seven games to start the season, the Knights were not in much of a mood to celebrate and that demeanour didn’t change after Thursday’s game.
Windsor rallied from an early one-goal deficit to beat London for the second time this season as the Spitfires registered a 3-1 win before 4,870 at the WFCU Centre.
“It would have been a pretty disappointing night not to get the win, but we did,” Spitfires forward Luke Boka said. “It was really special, especially seeing that banner go up. We’re part of history forever. It’s something really special.”
Windsor’s early-season success has been built on its veteran players while the Knights, who added several veterans to the lineup since the last meeting with Windsor, aren’t getting those contributions.
Windsor has seven players that competed in last year’s Memorial Cup. Tyler Nother remains sidelined by a concussion, but the others — Aaron Luchuk, Boka, DiPietro, Austin McEneny, Sean Day and Cole Purboo — have all been big contributors in the Spitfires picking up 11 of a possible 16 points this season.
“The veterans are carrying the load for us right now, but you look at these young guys and they’re being asked to play really big minutes,” Boka said. “They’re doing a great job and we’re really proud of them, but our veterans have been putting up numbers every game and playing big amounts of minutes.”
The Spitfires dominated play early and had a 14-4 edge in shots, but trailed 1-0 after the first period with London’s Harrison Cottam getting the lone goal.
It took 20 shots before Luchuk put Windsor on the board by beating Tyler Johnson.
From there, DiPietro came to the forefront with one big save after another as Cliff Pu, Max Jones, Robert Thomas and Sam Miletic, who all have NHL ties, buzzed the Windsor net, but could not get London back on top.
London fired 25 shots over the final two periods, but DiPietro stood tall.
“Mikey stopped a lot of their (Grade) A chances,” Luchuk said.
With time winding down, Mathew MacDougall squeezed a shot through Johnson’s pads and before he could cover it, Luchuk pounced for his eighth goal in eight games. Luchuk is on pace for 68 goals this season.
“Hopefully, I keep that up,” Luchuk said. “This is the start you kind of dream of going into the season.
“This is a pace I’ll try to keep up, whether it’s realistic to score 68 or not is up to me I guess. It’s a fun little streak I’m on and I hope it continues.”
Purboo capped the win with a diving play to score in an empty net.
“It’s a start no one expected from this team except the guys in the room,” Luchuk said. “We knew what we had in the room and we’re showing the league now.”