Spitfires go up 2-0 on Flint
It was a seesaw match of shift and momentum. And in the end, with overtime looming, it took a goal by Conor Walton — a low scoring defenseman who has tallied a mere 11 times in 217 career Ontario Hockey League games — with a minute left in the third period to propel the Windsor Spitfires to a frantic 6-5 win over the Flint Firebirds in Game 2 of their Western Conference semi-final playoff series.
With a pair of home victories, Windsor now leads the best of seven series 2-0 ahead of Games 3 and 4 that are slated for Flint on Tuesday and Thursday of this week.
There were numerous story lines to the Sunday matinee match before just over 5, 000 fans at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, including the fact that the Spitfires had leads of 2-0 and 3-1 only to trail 5-3 to the Firebirds heading into the third period.
And what a third period it was for the home side, beginning with Spitfires’ goalie Joey Costanzo, who shrugged off a sluggish two periods with several big stops — including one on a breakaway — in the final frame.
After squaring the score at 5-5 and with the clock clicking towards OT it was the aforementioned Conor Walton — formerly of the Espanola Paper Kings of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League (and in photo at left) — whose shot from the point beat Flint goalie Mason Vaccari to lift the Spitfires into the 2-0 series lead.
Walton’s game winner created a deafening roar within the WFCU Centre — the only louder noise may have come from effervescent Spitfires play by play man Steve Bell. (Simply put, there is no one in the OHL radio business who calls a more exciting game than the bubbly Bell.)
Scoresheet. in addition to the game winning goal by Walton, rookie Caden Harvey scored twice to spark the Spitfires attack. Meanwhile, inspirational captain Liam Greentree — who was ejected from the game late in the second period following a prior to the face-off fight with Darian Anderson of Flint — Cole Davis and Jack Nesbitt all scored once apiece for the Spitfires, who got three assists from the hard-toiling Anthony Cristoforo. Nathan Aspinall replied with two goals for Flint and Kevin He — who was a going concern throughout the game — Chris Thibodeau and Darian Anderson each found range once.
