OVER AND OUT FOR SPITFIRES’ SEASON
‘We put our hearts out there. We left everything,’ says forward Smith of 5-2 loss
Perhaps the Windsor Spitfires should look at Sunday’s seriesending loss to the Windsor Spitfires as a good omen.
A 5-2 loss to the Sting before 2,759 at the WFCU Centre enabled Sarnia to claim the bestof-seven Western Conference quarter-final series 4-2.
It marks the first time Sarnia has won a playoff series since 2008. That’s when a veteran Sting squad knocked off a young Windsor team in the first round of the playoffs. A year later, the Spitfires won the first of three Memorial Cups before the Sting finally won another playoff series.
“Going into the future, they will win a Memorial Cup in the next two to three years, I guarantee it,” overage forward Jake Smith said of the Spitfires. “They’ve got some phenomenal players that are moving up and are going to be great hockey players in the future. That’s going to be amazing for this organization.”
But now was not that time for a young Windsor squad against a veteran Sting squad that finished with the second-best record in the OHL.
“So close, but we couldn’t do it,” Spitfires overage defenceman Zach Shankar said.
After leaving the rink on crutches, all-star goalie Mikey DiPietro managed to get his injured right knee in good enough shape to start Sunday. “I didn’t want to use my leg as a crutch,” said DiPietro, who used hours of icing and rehab to get back on the ice. “I knew how big (Sunday) was and it was one of those injuries you could play through it and I chose to.”
He had a mild strain of the medial collateral ligament, a bone bruise and a stretched tendon, but said there was no actual damage to the joint.
“I didn’t want to put my team in a situation where I wasn’t in the net,” DiPietro said. “I don’t regret my decision. I was just proud to be out there with my teammates until the last second.”
Ryan McGregor converted a Windsor turnover in front of DiPietro for the opening goal and Franco Sproviero had the Sting up 2-0 before the Spitfires had recorded a shot on Sunday. “Not the most ideal start,” DiPietro said. “We definitely wanted to start a little bit better than that.”
Jonathan Ang pushed Sarnia’s lead to 3-0 before William Sirman got the Spitfires on the board to make it 3-1 after 40 minutes.
“We put our hearts out there,” Smith said. “We left everything.” Shankar made it a 3-2 game with just under 15 minutes to play in the third period, but Windsor could not get the equalizer and Jordan Ernst restored Sarnia’s two-goal lead five minutes later.
“We didn’t start the way we want to and it cost us, I guess,” Shankar said. “We were playing down the whole game, but we made a good push.
“They were up 3-0, we could have rolled over, but we kept coming and made it a 3-2 game and pushed them hard. The fourth goal was a little bit of a heartbreaker.”
Hugo Leufvenius added an empty-net goal to seal the victory for the Sting.
“I’m real happy with the pushback, but just not quite enough,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “I’m extremely proud of those guys.
“For me, it’s emotional. There was a belief we could win. Those kids have to hold their heads high and be proud. It’s not an easy league. It’s a hard league and a hard conference to win in and we held our own.”