SPITFIRES WERE MORE THAN THE KNIGHTS COULD BEAR
Windsor takes advantage of short-handed London during annual teddy toss game
It’s not often that the London Knights are viewed as the perfect tonic for a struggling hockey club.
With London minus four of its top players and head coach Dale Hunter because of world junior tryouts, the Spitfires could not have asked for a better time to see the Knights.
Windsor had lost five of its previous six games heading into Sunday’s match, but the Spitfires scored the game’s first four goals before the 10-minute mark of the first period and beat the Knights 6-3 before a crowd of 4,235 at the WFCU Centre.
“I guess we were a little bit lucky, but it didn’t change our mindset at all,” said Spitfires defenceman Thomas Stevenson, whose team has won two of three meetings with the Knights this season. “We didn’t think it was going to be easy at all. Maybe they struggled a bit without those guys, but all we can do is hop on them and take advantage.”
Windsor did just that by jumping to a 4-0 lead before the game was 10 minutes in and chased starting Knights goalie Dylan Myskiw with three goals on six shots in the first five minutes.
“I thought the first six minutes of the game we were detailed and we played great and scored three goals and we had about six or seven chances and dominated,” Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski said.
Captain Luke Boka got the Spitfires going in the club’s annual Teddy Bear Toss game by beating Myskiw from the slot on a delayed penalty less than four minutes in.
“I wanted it,” the Spitfires captain, in his fifth season, said of the goal that sent more than 2,700 stuffed toys to the ice. “To get that in my last year is special. We were desperate for a win. Our team’s in a slump and we needed to get out of that and I needed to be the leader of that as well as our other leadership group. It’s going to be on us to set the tone and play the right way.”
Tyler Angle and Egor Afanasyev followed with goals to chase Myskiw in a three-goal burst in 122 seconds. Angle beat backup Brett Brochu for his second goal of the game on a Windsor power play to push the lead to 4-0.
“It’s huge (to get that lead), but it’s almost hard in a way because you have to maintain that,” Stevenson said. “We’re a young team and we tend to get pretty high when we’re like that and we need to stay level-headed and play a full 60 minutes.”
Ryan Merkley and the London power play tried to get the Knights back in the game. Merkley’s point shot was tipped by Billy Moskal to cut Windsor’s lead to 4-1 after 20 minutes. Daniel D’amico restored Windsor’s four-goal lead, but Merkley set up Matvey Guskov for another power-play goal and Merkley rang a shot off the post and in to pull London to within 5-3 after 40 minutes.
“We had a real good goaltending performance from Xavier (Medina) and I thought he was probably the difference because we were kind of holding on for a good chunk of the game after the start,” said Letowski, whose team was outshot 42-30, including 33-21 over the final two periods.
“Give credit to Xavier, for sure. I could feel, even at 5-1, they were pushing us. We were kind of limping through that period at the end. I was very happy to get through that period at 5-3, for sure, and we had time to talk about it and the adjustments and the things we needed to do.”
The Spitfires’ Jean-luc Foudy had the lone goal in the third period as Windsor handed London its third straight loss and fifth in six games. With the win, Windsor is now two points back of West Division-leading Saginaw with four games in hand. The Spitfires also moved into a tie with the Knights for third overall in the Western Conference. Each team has 38 points with Windsor holding two games in hand.
“With that 13-game (point) streak and dropping a few, you just want to get in the win column as fast as we can,” Stevenson said. “We knew this was a must win for us and against London, it’s even better.”
Maybe they (the Knights) struggled a bit without those guys, but all we can do is hop on them and take advantage.