Spitfires Battle Firebirds for OHL’s Western Conference Championship
The Windsor Spitfires and Flint Firebirds have split the first two games of their best-of-seven Ontario Hockey League Western Conference Championship series.
The winner of the series will be awarded the Wayne Gretzky Trophy and advance to play the Eastern Conference champion (either Hamilton Bulldogs or North Bay Centennials) in the OHL Championship series that will start in early June.
The Firebirds captured the opening game of the series against the Spitfires with a 4-3 win last Saturday (May 21) at the WFCU Centre. Tag Bertuzzi paced Flint (1-0) offensively with a pair of goals while Amadeus Lombardi and James Mayotte scored the other goal for the Firebirds. Luke Cavallin, whose 36 wins were the most by any netminder during the OHL regular season, made 35 saves enroute to being named the game’s first star in the series opener. Bertuzzi’s second goal of the game came with just over four minutes remaining in the second period and eventually proved to be the game-winner.
Ryan Abraham scored twice for the Spitfires (0-1) while OHL regular season scoring champion Wyatt Johnston, who also leads the league in post-season scoring, had the other goals for Windsor. Matt Onuska, who has been net for every Spitfire play-off game, made 27 stops in his 12th consecutive game this spring.
The Western Conference championship opener was the first game for both teams in a week after Flint eliminated the Sault Ste. Marie Greyounds in five games in their Western Conference semi-final series and the Spitfires disposed of the Kitchener Rangers also in five games in the semi-final.
Windsor won game two in convincing fashion 7-2 two nights later, perhaps fueled by playing with a more physical flair and there were countless scrums between whistles. Will Cuylle opened the scoring late in the first period while the Spitfires (1-1) were killing a five-minute boarding penalty to Avval Baisov. The Russian rookie left-winger also received a game misconduct in addition to his major penalty.
Matthew Maggio scored three times in the convincing 7-2 win with Cuylle scoring twice and singles going to Jacob Maillett and Oliver Peer. Johnston contributed to the Windsor offensive outburst with three assists. Onuska was stellar in making 37 saves as the Spitfires tied the series at a win apiece. Maggio’s offensive outburst gave him four goals in the play-offs after having scored 38 times during the regular season.
Riley Piercey scored for the Firebirds (1-1) while Lombardi notched his team’s second goal. Cavallin made 33 saves before exiting the in the third period after experiencing a broken skate blade. Nathaniel Day made five saves in a relief effort for the visitors.
The series has shifted to the Dort Financial Centre for game three Wednesday (May 25) with game four set for Thursday (May 27) also in Michigan before the teams return to the WFCU Centre on Sunday (May 29) for game five. Opening face-off for all games is 7:05 pm