Spitfires take down powerhouse Hounds
Sault Ste. Marie’s potent offence reined in by Windsor’s stingy defence
It was a statement win for the Windsor Spitfires that might go a long way toward the team avoiding the No. 1-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League in the first round of the playoffs. After five straight losses to the top-ranked Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds this season, the Spitfires finally broke through for a win in the sixth and final meeting of the regular season with a tough 3-2 decision the before 4,442 in attendance at the WFCU Centre on Thursday. “That was a huge win,” said Spitfires overage forward Jake Smith, who returned from an eight-game suspension. “That’s a team, that’s their seventh regularseason loss (in 63 games) all year.” Sault Ste. Marie had long locked up first overall in the Ontario Hockey League and was chasing London’s record of 120 points in a season. The Spitfires came into Thursday’s game sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference, which would pit the team against the Greyhounds in the first round.
“I think it shows we can compete with anyone when we’re all on top of our game and we’re all going,” said Spitfires third-year forward Luke Boka, who had two assists. “I think it’s just a credit to our guys in the locker room. Our will to compete and win the little battles and do the little things.” Sault Ste. Marie’s top-ranked offence, which came in averaging 4.66 goals per game, struggled to generate chances against the Spitfires, who took away the passing lanes and denied the middle of the ice.
“We’ve got to deny the middle of the ice against this team,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “That’s always the messaging and I thought we did a real good job of it.
“I thought our defensive-zone coverage was very good. Much better then the last time we played them up in the Sault (on Sunday in a 5-2 loss). They’re very active with all five players and use the whole zone. There’s a lot of confusion there, but we did a good job.”
Windsor snapped an 0-for-21 skid on the power play with the only goal of the opening period as Igor Larionov scored Windsor’s first goal with the man advantage in 10 games.
“The power-play goal, for sure, was desperately needed and at a great time,” Letowski said. Ryan Roth got the Greyhounds even after 40 minutes, but Larionov fed Curtis Douglas for the go-ahead goal just over six minutes into the third period. The Greyhounds, who had just 13 shots in the first two periods, had 15 in the third period, but goalie Mikey DiPietro was solid and rookie Daniel D’Amico’s empty-net goal put Windsor up a pair of goals with 71 seconds left in regulation.
With the goalie again on the bench again, Tim Gettinger got the Greyhounds to within one with 44 seconds to play, but Sault Ste. Marie could not produce the equalizer.
With the win, the Spitfires jumped from eighth in the conference into a tie for sixth and actually have the tiebreaker on Guelph for that spot with more wins. Each team has five games left to play.
“The timing of the win is real
good for us,” Letowski said. “As a (coaching) staff, we didn’t think that was the game of a lifetime. We just executed our game plan and trusted it and everyone was going.
“When we do that, I think there’s a real belief at this point that we can beat anyone.”