The Windsor Spitfires certainly were not outclassed on Friday.
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The Windsor Spitfires certainly were not outclassed on Friday.
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After three days of dealing leading up to Friday’s OHL trade deadline, the Spitfires looked the better team for 50 minutes before falling 5-1 on the road to the London Knights before a crowd of 9,061at Canada Life Place.
Friday’s match was a battle for first overall in the league and Western Conference with both teams coming into the game with 61 points, but the Knights hold two games in hand on the Spitfires.
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Two of Windsor’s newest additions hit the ice for the first time with defenceman Wyatt Kennedy, who came over from North Bay, paired with Carson Woodall while Luke McNamara, who was acquired from Kingston, played on a line with Jack Nesbitt and A.J. Spellacy. Shawn Costello, who was acquired from Oshawa on Friday, did not make the game in time to dress.
Riding an eight-game winning streak coming into the game, the Spitfires dominated play for much of the match and held a 41-29 edge in shots, but could not find an answer for Knights’ rookie goalie Aleksei Medvedev, who was named the game’s first star.
After a scoreless first period, the Knights opened the scoring when Blake Montgomery got a step on the Windsor defence and went in alone to beat Spitfires’ goalie Joey Costanzo. Ilya Protas pulled the Spitfires even with a power-play goal, but Montgomery got his second of the game with just 12 seconds left in the second period just as a London power play expired to given London a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Windsor could not put the equalizer past Medvedev before Sam Dickson, Sam O’Reilly and Denver Barkey scored in a span of two minutes and 47 seconds to ice the ice for London.
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The Spitfires are back on the road Saturday with a West Division match against the Flint Firebirds with a 7 p.m. starting time.
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Game Summary
Friday Result
Knights 5 Spitfires 1
Windsor 0 1 0 – 1
London 0 2 3 – 5
First period: No scoring. Penalty: Eichler W (elbowing) 7:48.
Second period: 1. London, Montgomery 14 (Allen, Barkey) 5:00, 2. Windsor, Protas 26 (Greentree, Woodall) 14:08 (pp), 3. London, Montgomery 15 (Julien, Sim) 19:48. Penalties: Van Bommel L (hooking) 5:17, Nicholl L (tripping) 12:49, Allen L (slashing) 15:29, Protas W (tripping) 17:47, Spellacy W (roughing), Bonk L (roughing) 19:24.
Third period: 4. London, Dickinson 16 (Cowan, Halttunen) 10:57, 5. London, O’Reilly 17 (Bonk, Barkey) 11:39, 6. London, Barkey 11 (Montgomery) 13:44. Penalties: Nesbitt W (high sticking) 6:06, Brzustewicz L (holding) 15:12, Spellacy W (fighting), Van Bommel L (fighting) 18:19, Lemieux W (roughing), Brzustewicz L (roughing) 19:05.
Game stats – SOG – Windsor 12 13 16 – 41 London 8 7 14 – 29 Goal (shots-saves) – Windsor: Costanzo (L,23-6-1) (29-24). London: Medvedev(W,14-4-1-0) (41-40). Power play (goals-chances) – Windsor 1-4. London 0-3. Referees: Dave Lewis and Alex Ross. Linesmen: Andrew Langhorn and Scott Lawson. Att.: 9,061 at Canada Life Place.
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