The Spitfires blew a two-goal lead against the IceDogs
Short-handed team struggles from an early lead to a 4-3 shootout loss
In fairness, the tank was simply empty for the Windsor Spitfires.
Sure, there can be some disappointment with letting a twogoal lead slip away, but under the circumstances the Windsor Spitfires could smile a little after sneaking away with a point in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Niagara IceDogs before 4,619 at the Meridian Centre on Saturday.
“I’m not disappointed,” Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson said. “It was a good point and a good first half.”
The reality is the Spitfires have been running on fumes for weeks now, and fatigue was long overdue to catch up to the club.
“You can call it ridiculous,” said Spitfires third-year centre Aaron Luchuk, who played over 30 minutes on Saturday. “We’ve been fighting like this for so long. We’re all exhausted and dead.”
For the 10th time in the last 11 games and 18th time in 32 games this season, the Spitfires played under the 20-man limit and in the last week the club has basically been running with a single line of offence as the normal checking trio of Luchuk, Cristiano DiGiacinto and Luke Boka has been the only line producing goals.
“It’s been a long journey with some of the guys out, but at the same time there’s no excuses,” said DiGiacinto, who has three goals and nine points in his last four games. “We just couldn’t get the bounces today.
“I felt the chances were there at certain times, especially late in the game, but their goalie stood on his head.”
There was a point in Saturday’s game where it looked like the Spitfires were going to get away with another win with a shorthanded roster.
DiGiacinto put home a rebound just after a power-play chance had expired to put the Spitfires up 1-0 after 20 minutes. He then fed a pass to send Luchuk in alone to put Windsor up 2-0 in the second period.
Penalty problems would eventually empty the tank more for the veterans on the Spitfires, and Niagara got life with a power-play goal by Christopher Paquette less than two minutes after Luchuk’s goal.
Akil Thomas converted a turnover by the Spitfires in their own end to tie the game in the first minute of the third period. Johnny Corneil roofed a shot over Windsor goalie Mario Culina shortly after a Niagara power play and the IceDogs had their first lead of the game with less than 12 minutes left in regulation.
“You could see our guys, giving up the lead, could have packed it in, but they kept on going and found a way to score,” Thompson said.
With less than two minutes left in regulation and Culina on the bench for an extra attacker, DiGiacinto had one whack that was stopped by IceDogs goalie Stephen Dhillon, but Mikhail Sergachev was able to knock home the equalizer.
“There’s no quit in this team and we showed it again,” Luchuk said. “It’s bittersweet getting one point, but better than nothing.”
Windsor failed on 11 powerplay chances, including one in overtime, and after Luchuk opened the shootout with a goal, the IceDogs came back to get the win in four rounds.
“A lot of guys played a lot of minutes,” DiGiacinto said, whose team is now off until Dec. 28. “We’re excited to learn from this and bring it to the next half of the season to help push us, especially when we get our guys back.”
I felt the chances were there at certain times, especially late in the game, but their goalie stood on his head.