Outgunned by Otters yet again, road woes continue for Spits

Early success on the road helped the Windsor Spitfires stay competitive in the standings early in the season after a slow start at home.

Now, after becoming a dominating force at home, the Spitfires are trying to get back on track again on the road.

“That's the challenge now, winning on the road to keep moving,” Spitfires defenceman Louka Henault said.

The Spitfires began a stretch of five straight road games Friday against the Erie Otters, but the struggles continued away from the WFCU Centre.

Tied twice, the Spitfires never held a lead in the game, with the Otters scoring three times in the third period to secure a 6-4 win before a crowd of 2,880 at Erie Insurance Arena.

The Otters, who entered the game outside the playoff picture in the OHL Western Conference, have now won three straight games and beaten the Spitfires three times in four meetings this season.

After starting the season 9-3-11 away from home, the Spitfires are just 1-5-1-1 on the road since Jan. 14.

“I don't have an answer for that,” Spitfires head coach Marc Savard said.

At home, the Spitfires started the season with a 4-6-1-1 record, but have gone 15-1 since that point.

The club won its ninth straight game at home on Thursday and lead the conference with 19 home wins.

“At home, we've made it a difficult arena to play and we're not giving teams chances,” said Spitfires captain Will Cuylle ahead of back-to-back games in Erie. “This will be the weekend we try to turn it around (on the road).”

But it wasn't to be on Friday for the Spitfires, who headed to Pennsylvania right after Thursday's game and did not arrive to the team's hotel until 4:30 a.m.

It might have explained Windsor's slow start on Friday, with the club trailing 3-1 less than three minutes into the second period.

“Sometimes that's how it goes,” Henault said. “At times, it can be more taxing with the road trips, especially going across the border.”

Erie's Daniel D'amato and Nathan Sauder sandwiched goals around one by Spitfires rookie Ryan Abraham to put the Otters up 2-1 after 20 minutes.

For the first seven minutes of the second period, the Otters swarmed the Spitfires with the only seven shots of the period and a 16-9 edge at one point as Brendan Hoffman pushed Erie's lead to 3-1.

But a cross-checking penalty to Abraham seemed to help the Spitfires find a spark. Abraham stepped out of the penalty box and assisted on Matthew Maggio's goal to make it a one-goal game.

Wyatt Johnston followed that with the tying goal just 65 seconds later as Windsor pulled even at 3-3 after 40 minutes.

However, the Spitfires could never take a lead in the game. Colby Saganiuk restored the Erie lead before Maggio pulled Windsor even one final time at 4-4.

With just under eight minutes to play, Elias Cohen got credit for the winner on a shot that hit a skate and beat Windsor goalie Matt Tovell.

The 20-year-old Tovell, who made 24 saves, had been recalled from junior A Hawkesbury to fill in for Xavier Medina, who is sidelined by illness.

Tovell, who had gone 8-1-1 with Hawkesbury with a 1.59 goalsagainst average and .937 save percentage, was making his first start with the Spitfires since Dec. 17 after Matt Onuska had made five straight starts for Windsor.

Tovell was on the bench for an extra attacker when the Otters sealed the win, with Brendan Sellan scoring into an empty net.

The Spitfires will get another chance against the Otters when the two teams meet again at 7 p.m. on Saturday.