Looking for a late climb in the standings
Wins over Spirit, IceDogs give Windsor boost in Western Conference playoff race
Perhaps there is still time for the Windsor Spitfires to make a late climb up the standings.
After producing just three of a possible 26 points over a 13-game stretch, the Spitfires slid from a tie for fourth place in the Western Conference into the eighth and final playoff spot.
Now, after back-to-back wins, there’s the hope of making up some ground for the Spitfires, who are three points back of the seventh seed and five back of the fifth seed in the conference standings.
“Yeah, for sure, our goal is to move up as far in the standings as we possibly can,” Spitfires forward Curtis Douglas said. “With the team members we have, we can do that. There’s still 15 games left and there’s still a ton of time to come back and have a great finish to the year.”
After ending a seven-game losing streak with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Saginaw Spirit on Saturday, the Spitfires are now riding a winning streak for the first time in a over a month after a 2-0 win over the Niagara IceDogs on Sunday before 4,953 at the WFCU Centre.
“That was a tough game for our guys,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “I thought it was a real heavy game. That’s a good (Niagara) hockey team desperate to win. (They have) lots of forwards with lots of speed (and) big, strong players who really pushed our guys. That’s a physical brand of hockey and I thought we played well.”
After a scoreless first period, the Spitfires got a big boost by killing off back-to-back penalties and did not allow the IceDogs a manadvantage goal on three chances.
“A few games ago, we were giving up power-play goals, putting games out of reach,” said Letowski, whose team allowed nine powerplay goals on 23 chances during its seven-game losing streak. “We got a couple of penalty kills at key times that we were kind of giving up power-play goals at those times.”
After being limited to just 10 shots in the first two periods, the Spitfires pushed the IceDogs in a solid third period and produced 12 shots.
Douglas, who was stopped by Niagara goalie Stephen Dhillon on point-blank chances in each of the first two periods, finally produced the game’s first goal midway through the third as he snapped a shot between Dhillon’s legs.
“I was getting chances, so I was happy with that,” Douglas said. “I was just trying to keep rolling and not put my head down and keep peppering the pucks on him and finally I got one in. I think I had six or seven shots on him and, to be honest, I think that was one of my worst shots on him.”
Spitfires goalie Mikey DiPietro took care of the rest with a 24save performance that included an outstanding glove save on Kirill Maksimov on a late Niagara power play with Windsor clinging to a one-goal lead.
Mathew MacDougall, who had all three goals in the Saturday win, iced the win with an emptynet goal and DiPietro posted his league-leading fifth shutout of the season and extended his clubrecord career shutout total to 13. That ties him with J.F. Perras for fourth on the OHL’s all-time list. Gerald Coleman and Mark Visentin are tied for second with 14 and Thomas McCollum holds the OHL record with 16.
“It’s something I really don’t pay
There’s still 15 games left and there’s still a ton of time to come back and have a great finish to the year.
attention to, but having your name in that company is special,” DiPietro said. “I couldn’t do it without the team in front of me.
“It’s another win. That’s all that matters to me as long as we win the games.”