Windsor Spitfires Capture OHL’s Western Conference Regular Season Title
With two games left to play in the 2021-2022 Ontario Hockey League regular season, the Windsor Spitfires (44-16-3-3) have already won their first OHL Western Conference regular season championship in years. The team, currently on a 13-game winning streak, won the West Division’s regular season title by virtue of a 7-1 road win over the Guelph Storm last Friday, April7.
The Spitfires followed up the win in Guelph by defeating the Spirit in Saginaw 6-3 the very next night.
Windsor had been trailing the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Flint Firebirds and London Knights for top spot in the Western Conference for most of the season and finally caught and surpassed all three late last month. And after they assumed the top spot in their 10-team conference, the Spitfires never looked back and secured home ice advantage for the entire Western Conference post-season bracket.
Should the Spitfires advance to the OHL finals this spring, they would also enjoy the home-ice advantage over any team from the Eastern Conference, except for the Hamilton Bulldogs, who captured the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the OHL’s regular season champion. Heading into the last weekend of the OHL’s regular season, the Bulldogs lead the Spitfires by 7 points.
Spits’ general manager Bill Bowler had no difficulty in identifying the reasons for his club’s success so far in the 2021-2022 campaign.
”It’s certainly been an unusual season playing during COVID,” he claimed. “There’s been distractions and sudden changes to our schedule and roster. There’s even been constant changes to how many people we could have in the building for our games.
“But these are things that all of the teams in our league have had to contend with,” Bowler continued. “Maybe we have adapted better – or quicker – than these other clubs have.”
Rookie head coach Marc Savard was also cited by his general manager for the success the Spitfires (team record) have had.
“Marc has come in here, with a new coaching staff, and has done an outstanding job with our players,” Bowler offered.”It might have taken him a couple of weeks early on to get acquainted not only with the league again, but also to get acquainted with his coaching staff and team roster.”
Only Jerrod Smith returned as an assistant coach with the Spitfires after former coach Trevor Letowski left to join the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens as an assistant coach. Andy Delmore is in his first season as an assistant coach with the Spitfires and Michael Leighton joined the club as goalie coach too.
“Marc has certainly helped many of our players reach their offensive potential this season,” Bowler pointed out about the Spitfires, the highest scoring team in the OHL this season.
Windsor’s high-powered offence is lead by OHL scoring leader Wyatt Johnston (point total) and three players who have score at least 30 goals, including Will Cuylle (45), Matthew Maggio (38) and Daniel D’Amico (31) who are all having breakout seasons in 2021-22
Having home ice advantage for the entire Western Conference post-season doesn’t bode well for opposition teams as the Spitfires were the hardest team to beat at home in the West this season as the club boasted a (25-7-1-1) record. And the Spitfires haven’t exactly been pushovers on the rod either in 2021-22 s evidenced by their record of18-9-2-2 heading into this weekend’s games. Seven of the team’s 13 consecutive victories having come on the road too.
Bowler also pointed to his team’s ability to roll four lines consistently has being a pillar for the team’s success this season.
“It’s been hard for teams to shut us down completely for many games this season as have four lines that can perform well at both ends of the ice with great consistency” Bowler said.
The Spitfires will conclude the 2021-22 OHL regular season with road games against the Erie Otters (April 15) and the Guelph Storm the following night. The team will likely open the playoffs at the WFCU Centre next Thursday night (April 21) against the eighth seed in the Western Conference.