MacDougall sinks the streak with scintillating effort

The emotion came pouring out of the Windsor Spitfires Saturday.

Rookie Mathew MacDougall completed his first Ontario Hockey League hat trick at 3:16 of overtime as the Spitfires snapped a sevengame losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Saginaw Spirit before 3,235 at the Dow Event Center.

“It feels good to get the streak over with,” said the 17-year-old MacDougall.

The seven-game regulation losing streak was the longest by the Spits since the club ended the 201415 season with seven straight losses. The club had not lost eight straight in regulation since 2006-07.

“It means a lot because it gives us some relief,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “For us as coaches, you’re so happy for them because they finally get to feel (a win). It’s exciting.”

It wasn’t an easy win as the Spitfires fell behind 2-0 after 20 minutes. Mason Kohn got a favourable bounce off the boards on a shot that went wide and opened the scoring. D.J. Busdeker fell in the Windsor zone and as he scrambled to get back in the play, he was behind the Windsor defence for a breakaway goal.

“It’s not like we were playing a bad game,” MacDougall said. “We were playing well. We just had to step up a little bit more and that’s what we did.”

MacDougall, who came to the club in an off-season trade with Barrie, was at the edge of the crease to tap in his first goal in 10 games to start the Windsor comeback. He brought the Spitfires even after 40 minutes after blowing by a defenceman and scoring his second goal of the game.

“He looked fresh,” Letowski said of MacDougall, who had missed the previous two games with a concussion. “He was flying. That’s what we need from him because he can be a game-breaker for us.”

After a scoreless third period and with time winding down in overtime, MacDougall collected a long rebound from his initial shot and scored the winner.

“I saw we only had about a minute left,” MacDougall said. “I tried to get the puck on net. I was able to get the rebound and outskated the defenceman and just tried my best to put it in.

“I saw (Spirit goalie Evan Cormier) was trying to poke-check it, so I tried to toe-drag him. I saw he was lunging, so I thought that was the best move and I slid it five-hole.”

“Just the way we won it, I think says so much about our group because that’s not easy,” Letowski said.