Windsor Spitfires Defeat Flint Firebirds 4-0 to Win the West and Advance to OHL Finals
The Windsor Spitfires defeated the Flint Firebirds 4-0 Wednesday night at the WFCU Centre to win the Ontario Hockey League Western Conference championship in seven games.
Daniel D’Amico scored three times while Alex Christopoulos had the other goal for the Spitfires (4-3). Windsor goaltender Xavier Medina made 38 saves to pick up his first OHL shutout in 70 games split between regular season and play-off contests. Luke Cavallin made 32 stops for the Firebirds (3-4).
Win the series victory, the Spitfires, who were presented with the Wayne Gretzky Trophy as Western Conference champs in the play-offs in an on-ice ceremony immediately following handshakes between the two clubs, advanced to the OHL Championship series where they will meet the Eastern Conference champion Hamilton Bulldogs. The first two games of that series go Friday night (June 3) and Sunday afternoon (June 5) at the First Ontario Centre before the series comes to Windsor for game three (Monday, June 6) and game four (Friday, June 10).
D’Amico scored twice in the first period to open the scoring in the game for the Spitfires before completing his hat-trick by scoring into an empty net late in the third period. Christopoulos scored with just under four minutes remaining in the second period to give the Spitfires a 3-0 lead at that point.
Heading into game seven, the road team had won four of the six games of the series with both teams winning twice on the road. The Spitfires snapped that trend to advance to the next round against Hamilton
The actual need for game seven was created the night before when Andrew Perrott scored the winner in overtime as the Spitfires defeated the Firebirds 3-2 a the Dort Financial Centre in Flint.
Ethan Keppen opened the scoring in the game for the Firebirds (3-3) on a five-on-three powerplay midway through the first period before D’Amico replied for the Spitfires (3-3) just 12 seconds later to bring Windsor back to even terms.
Riley Piercey scored for Flint just past the midway point of the second period to give the Firebirds a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes of play. With Windsor seemingly on the brink of elimination, D’Amico scored his second goal of the game just before the half-way point of the third period to send the game to extra time and set the stage for Perrott’s heroics.
Cavallin, who lead the OHL in regular season wins with 36, made 54 saves, many of them spectacular, to almost single-handedly carry his team into overtime. Spitfire netminder Medina, who was making his first start of the series, was stellar himself in making 31 stops for the Spitfires. The Detroit native,in his third season with the Spitfires,saw his first action of the series in Flint’s 4-3 win at the WFCU Centre when starting goaltender Matt Onuska tweaked an undisclosed injury in the second period of the game.
Onuska did not dress for either game six or seven as Kyle Downey served as the backup puckstopper for both games for Windsor. Onuska’s status for the OHL Finals is unknown at this time.