SPITS’ TOUGH SLEDDING CONTINUES
CAN’T HAVE IT Jaden Ogorek, left, of the Sarnia Northern Vikings protects the ball from Nate Carson of the Herman Green Griffins on Friday at the 62nd annual University of Windsor Invitational high school basketball tournament. Desmond Price scored 23 points as Herman won 67-59 in double overtime and advanced to Saturday’s semifinals. against Cambridge St. Benedict at 11:30 a.m. Kitchener Eastwood plays Toronto Oakwood in the other semi at 1 p.m. SPIRIT 6, SPITFIRES 2
It’s clear the Windsor Spitfires need to make some adjustments. The club is now winless in four games since trading goalie Mikey DiPietro after Friday’s 6-2 loss to the Saginaw Spirit before 3,013 at the Dow Event Center.
“I think there’s some games that we just haven’t come to play,” Spitfires forward Cole Purboo said. “We know we can win without Mike if we play our game.”
While it’s easy to blame the players trying to fill the pads of DiPietro, goaltending is not the only issue hampering the club since the deal, but the Spitfires have allowed 23 goals in four games since the trade and that never happened under DiPietro’s watch.
“We haven’t changed the way we played yet, but we’re probably going to have to start,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said. “Twenty-three (goals) in four (games) is not good, obviously.” Give credit to Letowski, who has proven to be pretty adept when dealing with roster changes.
A year ago, Letowski milked veterans Aaron Luchuk, Logan Brown, Sean Day and Austen McEneny for all he could get before they were dealt away along with Gabriel Vilardi. Each time, Letowski tinkered with his game plan to adjust to the loss. While the scoring became more by committee, it was still enough to pull a young team into the sixth spot in the Western Conference for the playoffs. “We’re in a little bit of a rut, but I don’t think we’ve given up our fight,” Letowski said. “The chances we’re giving up are ending up in the back of our net. There’s some things, like two-on-ones, we’ll make some adjustments to tighten that up. We’re going to not be so aggressive because we’re giving up high-end scoring chances. “
The DiPietro deal makes things a little different. You can’t replace a goalie by committee, but you can adjust how you play in front of the goalie.
The freewheeling style the Spitfires were able to enjoy while DiPietro was there to bail his teammates out on any miscues, simply cannot continue.
“We always want to be tight in our d(efensive) zone, so we just have to tighten that up more since we don’t have Mikey back there,” Purboo said. “Nothing changes, just play harder.” Colton Incze, who came over from Niagara the same day DiPietro was dealt, got his first start in goal for Windsor on Friday, but he spent the opening period in a shooting gallery in the Spitfires’ net facing 19 shots. After opening the scoring on a goal by rookie Will Cuylle, the Spitfires found themselves down 2-1 after 20 minutes with Damien Giroux and Cole Perfetti scoring 34 seconds apart for Saginaw. “We got a good start and then they starting pushing us,” Purboo said.
Windsor settled down in the second period and outshot the Spirit 22-10 in the period. Purboo got Windsor even, but the Spirit replied on the next shift to take a 3-2 lead on a Perfetti goal. “It’s super important,” Purboo said of the next shift. “We have to pay more attention right after we score because that’s happened to us a couple of times.”
Little things like taking care of the next shift after a goal and missing opportunities enabled the Spirit to secure its first win in four tries against the Spitfires this season.
Windsor had four power-play chances against the Spirit in the second period, which included a lengthy two-man advantage, but the Spits could not produce the equalizer as they failed to convert on five chances in the game.
“The power play’s becoming an issue,” Letowski said. “It’s a onegoal game with a five-on-three to start the third period. We have the momentum.”
Blade Jenkins, D.J. Busdeker and Giroux closed the scoring in the third period.