Spitfires score 5-2 win over Knights
PK solid as Memorial Cup champs off to 2-0 start after win in London
The Windsor Spitfires will not let the disappointment of last season’s first-round playoff loss to the London Knights linger.
Part of that is because the Spitfires went on to win the Memorial Cup. The other part is that few of the players from that series remained on either side when the two teams met on Friday.
The Spitfires have 14 new faces on the roster and the Knights have seven potential returning players still away at NHL camps.
The Spitfires got goals from four players who weren’t even in the lineup in last year’s series in a 5-2 victory before 9,036 at Budweiser Gardens.
“For me, it’s such a different group we have that it’s just kind of move on,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “It’s not thought about at all.”
Windsor fans remember the series well — the Spitfires let a 3-1 series lead slip away as the Knights took the first-round matchup in seven games.
It put the Spitfires on the sidelines for 44 days, but they regrouped and became the firstever team eliminated in the opening round of league playoffs to come back and win the Memorial Cup.
“It helped us that we were healthy,” Spitfires captain Aaron Luchuk said. “That was the key. We were healthy for the first time all year.”
The Spitfires got a chance to get healthy and work on some things, but Luchuk gives no credit to the Knights.
“You can look at it both ways,” Luchuk said. “We could have been rusty, too.
“Obviously, we would have loved to have won the OHL championships last year and go the right way through, but at the end of the day it was what it was and we dealt with it and you move forward and we did everything we could and won.”
Windsor’s youthful lineup again continued to move forward on Friday with a solid road game in one of the league’s most difficult rinks to play in.
“That’s one of the toughest buildings in our league to win in,” said Spitfires goalie Mikey DiPietro, who made 30 saves.
But the Spitfires never trailed in Friday’s game against the Knights in making it back-to-back wins to start the season.
Special teams were again huge for the Spitfires with Igor Larionov redirecting a centring pass in to open the scoring on a Windsor power play, but Josh Nelson pulled the Knights even before the end of the period.
Cole Purboo’s power-play goal put the Spitfires up 2-1, but the Knights tied it again on an Adrian Carbonara goal.
With the period winding down, Chris Playfair scored off an oddman rush and Windsor took a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.
The Knights would get six power-play chances in the third period, including three two-man advantages, but the Spitfires would not yield a goal and the club has now killed off all 13 opposition chances to start in the game.
Between those power-play chances, Tyler Angle would extend the Windsor lead to two goals and Luchuk added an empty-netter to seal the win.
“I don’t think I’ll ever like the London Knights,” Luchuk said. “I think that’s a pretty strong hate playing with the Spits for the last four years.”
But for Letowski, it wasn’t avenging last year’s playoff loss, but merely turning the page and moving forward.
“We have to move forward,” Letowski said.
“For that playoff series, it’s not really something you’re thinking about.”