Windbiel wins OHL debut
He answered the call and stood tall, albeit with somewhat of a third period fall. Rookie goalie Jake Windbiel made his Ontario Hockey League debut for the Windsor Spitfires today and came away a winner up north in Sault Ste. Marie.
The 6 foot 4, 208 pound Windbiel (in photo at left) was focused from the opening minute of play in his first OHL game. Along the way, for the most part, Windbiel looked cool, calm and collected. And among his 32 saves were three breakaway stops as the Spitfires scored a wild 10-6 road decision over the Soo Greyhounds.
In the lineup to give workhorse starter Joey Costanzo a rest and with normal backup Carter Froggett sidelined with an injury that occurred before Christmas, Windbiel rose to the occasion, though he did allow four of the six goals against in the third period as the desperate Hounds pulled out all the stops.
Windbiel, who the Spitfires selected in the seventh round of the 2024 OHL priority selections draft from the AAA Chicago Mission, has been developing this season with Windsor’s nearby affiliate, the LaSalle Vipers of the Greater Ontario Jr. Hockey League. He has a 12-7-0 record with a 2.84 goals against average and .914 save percentage for LaSalle.
Back to today’s road win over the Greyhounds, the Spitfires completed a weekend sweep at the Soo and boosted their high performance record to 25-7-3 on the season. The Greyhounds fell to a disappointing 15-20-0 with the loss.
Scoring for the Spitfires were Cole Davis with a hat trick, Liam Greentree with a pair and solo tallies by Ryan Abraham, J.C. Lemieux, Noah Morneau, Jack Nesbitt and Ilya Protas.
The Spitfires return to action on Tuesday, December 31 with a 2:05 p.m. matinees match against the visiting Flint Firebirds at the WFCU Center.