Spitfires upset Sting, take Game 1 of series
DiPietro solid between the pipes, warns young teammates that it’s only one game
The young Windsor Spitfires matured quickly on Friday. With 14 players in the lineup playing an Ontario Hockey League playoff game for the first time, the Spitfires walked into Sarnia and knocked off the No. 5-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League by a 6-2 count before 3,522 at the Progressive Auto Insurance Arena.
“We needed everyone to beat these guys,” Spitfires forward Cole Purboo said. “We knew it wasn’t an excuse that we were young and our young guys showed up. We’re confident in our ability and if we play our top game we can beat anyone.” Windsor has stolen home ice in the series with a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and will look to grab another win on Saturday when Game 2 of the series is played in Sarnia. Game time is 7:05 p.m.
“Anytime you can get a win in your first playoff game, it’s huge,” Spitfires goalie Mikey DiPietro said. “But it’s only one win. We need three more to win the series. Forget it and focus on (Saturday) because it’s a quick turnaround.
“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves.
“There are things in our game we can tighten up.”
With so many new faces in the lineup trying to get their feet wet in the OHL playoffs, the Spitfires wanted a perfect opening period to get the nerves out, but DiPietro got his glove up to snap the puck out of the air off Sean Josling ’s shot.
“He’s the best,” Purboo said of DiPietro. “He puts on a performance 99 per cent of the time. He’s great.”
Sarnia dominated the shot clock and fired pucks from every angle at DiPietro, who was solid with a 43-save performance, and a miscue by Sting goalie Justin Fazio enabled the Spitfires to get on the board first. William Sirman picked a puck up in the corner, fired it at the net and it caught Fazio in the side and bounced in.
“I meant to shoot it,” Sirman said. “I was trying to put it off his pad.”
Less than three minutes later, Purboo tipped a Connor Corcoran shot in to put the Spitfires up 2-0.
“I think it settled us down,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “To score the first couple of goals, it’s important because we’re in a game now. “If they get an early one, it could maybe get away from us. I think it was important.” Drake Rymsha cut the Windsor lead to 2-1 as he put home his own rebound, but Igor Larionov restored Windsor’s two-goal lead before the second period ended with a power-play goal against a Sarnia team that had the No. 1-ranked penalty kill in the league in the regular season. “We killed a few (penalties) and got a power-play goal and that’s what kind of what we felt we needed to do in this series,” Letowski said. “Get through special teams even or ahead and we did that (Friday).” Overage defenceman Zach Shankar silenced the building as he walked around a defender and flew across the crease to stuff a shot home that put the Spitfires up 4-1 less than four minutes into the third period.
“It felt good,” Shankar said. “I was happy to be able to do that for the team and fortunate enough to be a nice one.” Anthony Salinitri got the Sting to within two goals late in the game, but Purboo hit an empty net and Jake Smith added a late goal to finish the scoring. “It’s fun at the end,” DiPietro said. “I’m nervous in the game, but it’s fun at the end. When the guys show up like that, we get the bounces and you’re feeling good about yourself, there’s no better feeling.”
It’s only one win. We need three more to win the series. Forget it and focus on (Saturday) because it’s a quick turnaround.