Spitfires down Frontenacs 5-4.
Brown, Purboo strike late to stun Frontenacs
It was a much-needed win for a Windsor Spitfires team in need of a little confidence boost.
In Houdini-like fashion, the Spitfires scored two goals just 26 seconds apart in the final 68 seconds of regulation, and with the goalie on the bench, to force extra time. Then the Spitfires netted the only two goals in the shootout to rally past the Kingston Frontenacs 5-4 on Friday before 4,522 at the WFCU Centre.
“It’s probably the craziest win of my OHL career for sure,” Spitfires overage captain Aaron Luchuk said. “I mean, we showed a lot of fight tonight.”
Windsor came into the game having lost three straight games, its longest skid of the season, and looked headed for a fourth straight loss before the dramatic finish.
“That was crazy,” Spitfires forward Cole Purboo said. “First time I’ve been a part of something like that. Really exciting and our big guys really stepped up.”
Windsor got some muchneeded help from its struggling power play, with Luchuk’s goal with the man advantage giving the Spitfires the only goal of the opening period.
“It’s huge for us,” Luchuk said. “Our special teams have been struggling these last two weeks. For us to shut them out (on two chances) and score one is huge, confidence wise.”
But on similar plays, the Spitfires lost track of Dallas Stars prospect Jason Robertson and the big winger scored twice from close range to give Kingston its first lead of the game.
Rookie defenceman Lev Starikov jumped into the rush and scored his first Ontario Hockey League goal to get Windsor even, but Tyler Burnie put home a rebound with eight seconds left in the second period to make it 3-2 Kingston.
Windsor pressed throughout the third period, but the club’s fate looked sealed when Matt Hotchkiss scored with less than seven minutes to play in regulation.
“I think, overall, even though we were down 4-2 late in the third period, I thought we played a really solid game up to that point,” Luchuk said. “It just felt like we weren’t getting our bounces, kind of like the last couple games.
“It felt like one of those others ones where we were going to play really well and come out on the wrong end of it, but we stuck with it.”
The Spitfires got goalie Mikey DiPietro to the bench for an extra attacker and Logan Brown made it a one-goal game. Windsor won the ensuing faceoff and DiPietro raced to the bench and Brown found Purboo for the tying goal with 42 seconds to play in regulation.
“It was a nice pass,” Purboo said of Brown’s feed. “He made it easy on me.”
Windsor had not played a shootout game this season, but head coach Trevor Letowski opted to have his team shoot first.
Luchuk buried his shot and DiPietro made a pair of saves before Jake Smith sealed it by racing in, faking a slap shot to freeze Kingston goalie Jeremy Helvig and sliding wide to tuck it in the open net.