INCZE’S 51-SAVE EFFORT HELPS SPITS TO BIG POINT
Windsor goalie ‘stood on his head for us’ in 3-2 shootout loss to Mississauga
Windsor Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski played a gut feeling and with it may have found a new No. 1 goaltender. Colton Incze had not played back-to-back games for the Spitfires since arriving in a December trade with Niagara on the same day the club traded Mikey DiPietro to Ottawa.
The 20-year-old Incze responded with a 51-save effort on Sunday as the Spitfires were outshot 53-29 in the game, but escaped with a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Mississauga Steelheads before a crowd of 1,956 at Paramount Fine Foods Centre. “We just went with our gut,” said Letowski, who had been rotating Incze with rookie Kari Piiroinen. “We haven’t gone back-to-back much, but we just felt with the way things happened (in Saturday’s shootout loss to Erie) that we just wanted to give ourselves the best chance and felt (Incze) was the guy.” The six-foot-two, 200-pound Incze had his struggles early in Windsor, but part of that was due to a lack of action in Niagara. “It makes such a big difference,” Incze said. “I loved my time in Niagara. I felt like I was playing well, but you need to get into a bit of rhythm. You need to see two or three games a weekend. You’ve got to play every weekend to find your game.” The Spitfires have lost in extra time three of the last four games, all with Incze in net and on the road, but his play was a factor in the team escaping with a point in all three games.
“Kari’s a young player and is going to get his starts, but Colton’s earned everything he’s gotten,” said Letowski, whose team allowed over 50 shots for the first time this season. “When (Incze) got here, it was the other way and he’s pushed back and now he’s moved into that (No. 1) position for now.”
The Spitfires never had a lead in Sunday’s game, but leaned heavily on Incze to remain within reach of getting to extra time. “They were all over us coming into the first,” Spitfires centre Tyler Angle said. “Inczer stood on his head for us and it showed on the shot (clock).” Windsor was outshot 38-16 through 40 minutes, but trailed by just a goal. Angle’s power-play goal in the second period offset C.J. Clarke’s rebound goal in the first period for Mississauga in the first period. McHugh knifed a shot over Incze with seventenths of a second left in the second period to put the Steelheads up 2-1 after 40 minutes.
For a Windsor team playing two players under the 20-man limit and having travelled over 2,600 kilometres over the last 11 days to play five road games, it might have been easy to quit at that point. “That goal, that was so hard,” said Letowski, whose team let a two-goal lead slip away on Saturday in the third period. “That’s a tough one, especially after what happened (in Erie on Saturday). You could tell the guys were tired and it would be real easy to go away there, but I thought we fought back in the third.” Windsor outshot the Steelheads 10-6 in the third period, got the tying goal from Cole Purboo and killed off a penalty in the final two minutes to get to extra time. “I was real proud that they came out and didn’t go away,” Letowski said. “Just stick with it and one of those games where you don’t think it’ll happen, but the boys dug in.” Mississauga captain and former Spitfire Cole Carter had the only goal in three rounds of the shootout to win it. While the Spitfires have lost five-straight games, three have been in extra time and Sunday’s point pushed the team three-points ahead of Erie for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. “We didn’t get out to our best start as a team, but that’s a massive point on the road against a really strong Mississauga team that just beat Niagara and Ottawa,” Incze said. “I was pretty happy that we came out with a point. I know it’s always frustrating to lose these types of close games, but it’s a huge point.”