Windsor Spitfires Head into OHL Holiday Break Flying High
The Windsor Spitfires were flying high and were one of the hottest teams in the Ontario Hockey League as the team headed into the league’s holiday break last weekend.
The Spitfires won their last two games before departing on their respective ways and heading home for the holidays. The victories extended their winning streak to a season-high six games and moved them into a first-place tie with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds atop the OHL’s West Division standings.
Windsor and the Soo had virtually identical records with the Spitfires having a 18-8-2-2 record and the ‘Hounds having gone 15-9-2-0 in 26 games as well.
In their last eight games before the holiday break the Spitfires had identical 3-0-1 record both at home and on the road, with their only blemishes on that mark being back-to-back overtime losses to Saginaw on the road in their last game of November and at home to Erie in the team’s first game of December
Moreover, during the Spitfires’ current hot streak the team only had starting netminder Xavier Medina in the lineup for three of the eight games and were also without team leading scorer Will Cuylle, currently with Team Canada in advance of the upcoming 2022 World Junior Hockey Championships in Alberta, who missed four games, and second leading scorer Kyle McDonald, who missed Windsor’s last two games before the holiday break in the schedule with an injury. Medina, who missed nine games with his first injury, missed two more games after allowing just three goals in three games in his return before re-injury
On December 16 at the WFCU Centre, the Spitfires defeated the Hounds 4-3 in overtime on Wayne Maxner night. The legendary Spits head coach was honoured in a pre-game ceremony that saw him walk out on the ice for a ceremonial face-off while receiving a thunderous standing ovation.
Matthew Maggio, Daniel D’Amico, Wyatt Johnston all scored for the Spitfires in regulation before Louka Henault’s fifth goal of the season just 24 seconds into overtime settled the affair. Robert Callisti, Tye Karte and Marco Mignosa replied for the Soo. Kyle Downey made 29 saves to pick up the win in net while Tucker Tynan 42 stops at the other end.
Windsor finished its pre-holiday schedule the following night with a 7-5 win over the Saginaw Spirit at the Dow Event Centre. Windsor received single markers from Nathan Ribau, Jacob Maillet, Miedema, D’Amico, Alex Christopoulos, Johnston and Maggio while Evan Klein paced the Spirit offensively with two goals with single markers going to Calem Mangone, Nick Wong while Windsor native and rookie left winger Sebastien Gervais adding singles.. Spits’ rookie goaltender Matthew Tovell, who was again recalled from the Junior B LaSalle Vipers to take the roster spot of the injured Medina, made 23 saves while picking up his third win of the OHL season. Andrew Oke made 24 stops for the home team.
The Spitfires return to action on December 28 when they take on the Kitchener Rangers on the road at the Memorial Auditorium.
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