Full-game consistency eludes Spitfires in two straight losses
Consistency is often a tough commodity to find in a young team.
For a Windsor Spitfires roster that continues to get younger, that lack of consistency is a big reason the team has now lost back-toback games.
For the second straight game, the Spitfires produced a solid opening 20 minutes only to be overwhelmed in the middle period as the club fell 4-2 on Sunday to the Saginaw Spirit before 5,577 at the WFCU Centre.
“I don’t think we can make any excuses,” Spitfires second-year forward Cole Purboo said. “A bunch of our guys have played top roles. They’ve been given a chance for top roles and everyone’s getting into the lineup and a chance to play, so I don’t think it’s an excuse. We just have to be better as a team.”
Windsor was that for the opening 20 minutes on Sunday. Rookie Jordan Frasca, who was playing in just his sixth game, scored his first OHL goal on a nice cross-ice feed from rookie Chris Playfair.
“The defence really didn’t see me, so I slid back door and Playfair gave me the puck and I just tapped it in,” said Frasca, who was the team’s seventh-round pick in April’s OHL Draft. “It was pretty exciting.”
Saginaw ’s Damien Giroux tied it just nine seconds into the game’s first power-play chance, but Windsor took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission with rookie defenceman Lev Starikov putting home a rebound at the edge of the crease.
“I think for us to win games, we have to play like we did in the first period,” Spitfires assistant coach Jerrod Smith said. “We need 20
guys outworking our opponent, outcompeting and being relentless. We got that for 20 minutes and that’s not enough.”
Windsor took four straight minor penalties in the second period and for the second game in a row the Spitfires allowed a pair of power-play goals to the opposition as Mason Kohn scored just seven seconds into Saginaw’s second power play chance of the game.
“I thought we were soft in front (of our net) on those rebounds and they got two rebound goals on the power play,” Smith said. “To me, those are small, easy details that we need to be dialed in on.”
Keaton Middleton scored just 53 seconds later and Saginaw had a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes while holding Windsor to just three shots on goal in the middle frame.
“Our second period killed us,” Purboo said. “We just got into penalty trouble in the second
period and they started to come back. Normally we’ve been good, but we’ve taken a lot of penalties the last couple of games.”
The Spitfires tried to mount a comeback in the third period. Tyler Angle put a shot off the post on a Saginaw turnover and Mathew MacDougall couldn’t find the handle on an open net after Purboo broke in alone and was stopped.
“I think we had more intensity in the third period and I thought, honestly, we were going to score, but it was just unfortunate we couldn’t get it,” Purboo said. “We had a lot of chances and just couldn’t finish.”
Kohn finally sealed the win for Saginaw with an empty-net goal as the Spitfires have now lost backto-back games in regulation for the first time since losing three straight games from Nov. 16 to 19.