Windsor to face Sarnia in playoffs
With victory over Spirit, Windsor dodges playoff set against top-ranked Greyhounds
Goalie Brock Baier waited until the final game of the regular season on Sunday to finally savour a little of the personal success many of his fellow firstyear teammates have had on the Windsor Spitfires.
With final playoff seedings still hanging in the balance, the 18-year-old Baier was somewhat of a surprise starter on Sunday against the Saginaw Spirit. Baier delivered a 31-save performance to record his first OHL win as the Spitfires edged the Spirit 3-2 before 5,542 at the WFCU Centre.
“Finally off my back,” Baier said of the win. “It’s an awesome feeling. A great accomplishment, personally, but a great team effort.”
Sunday was no throwaway game for the Spitfires. A loss in regulation and the Spitfires were headed to Sault Ste. Marie for the first round of the playoffs against the No. 1-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League. With the win, the Spitfires finished sixth in the Western Conference and will face the
Sarnia Sting, who are ranked No. 5 in the CHL.
“It was a long road and finishing sixth with such a young group, we should be very proud,” Baier said.
No matter where the Spitfires finished the regular season, the club knows it has a tall challenge in the first round of the playoffs and that factored into Baier getting the start.
“It was going to be sixth or eighth, so it was pick our poison,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “The plan was we really wanted to give (goalie) Mikey (DiPietro) a day off this weekend. We felt he played really well (Saturday) and was in a really good place.
“We just felt with where Sarnia and Sault are sitting, it was going to be a tough matchup either way. We still wanted to win the game and it worked out perfectly because the boys rallied around it.”
Under the circumstances, Baier admits he sometimes wondered if that first win would remain elusive.
“It’s in the back of my head,” Baier said. “I haven’t had the best start and getting the start (Sunday) really meant a lot to me. It was a long year, but it’s a long year for everyone. The guys in front of me played great and I’m very lucky they came out to play.” Jake Smith’s power-play goal put Windsor up 1-0 after the first period and rookie Nathan Staios made it 2-0 in the second period, but the Spirit tied the game in a span of 16 seconds on goals by D.J. Busdeker and Mason Kohn. The Spirit came close to getting the lead before the end of the second period, but Baier kept his team tied with a 14-save performance in the second period. “Most importantly, we wanted to get that for Brock,” Smith said. “He’s worked his butt off all year. “We love the guy and to get him that win, that meant a lot. ”
In a crazy scene with time winding down in the third period, Smith hit a crossbar and teammate Igor Larionov was stopped by Spirit goalie Evan Cormier after walking in alone just seconds apart. Saginaw went the other way and had an open net for the goahead
goal, but Windsor defenceman Connor Corcoran slid over to block Busdeker’s attempt. “With five minutes left and 2-2 and an empty net and Corks just dives over to make a save,” Baier said. “That’s when I thought I might (win it).”
Needing a win in regulation to avoid finishing in eighth place, Saginaw pulled its goalie and Smith put the game-winning goal into an empty net.