Greyhounds v. Spitfires
It is playoff time in the Ontario Hockey League. And in this particular Western Conference showdown, don’t be overly swayed by the regular season points differential between the no. 7 seed Soo Greyhounds and the no. 2 seed Windsor Spitfires in their first round playoff series.
It is true that the 45-17-6 Spitfires finished 34 points ahead of the 29-35-4 Greyhounds during the regular season. But it might be argued that Windsor — which missed the playoffs by a wide margin in ’23-24 with a record of 18-42-8 — overachieved in ’25-26 while the Soo was a disappointment for much of the regular season before closing it out with five straight wins to make the playoffs.
At any rate, the series has the makings of a six or seven game set with the Greyhounds and their head coach John Dean eager to cast themselves as decided underdogs and put the pressure on the Spitfires.
Which, to be sure, is good strategy on Dean’s part — while he seemingly overlooks the fact that the Greyhounds have key players such as high scoring forwards Marco Mignosa and Justin Cloutier and defenseman Caeden Carlisle and Memorial Cup championship goalie Nolan Lalonde (by way of the Saginaw Spirit) who have way more prior playoff experience than the vast majority of the Spitfires veteran players do.
Talent wise, the two teams are rather evenly matched though Windsor probably has a bit more depth than the Soo does. Then again, the Spitfires will be without overage defenseman Tnias Mathurin and rookie sensation forward Ethan Belchetz due to long term injuries.
Experience wise, the Greyhounds have an edge over the Spitfires among key veteran players — a big edge in games played.
Between the pipes — the all important goalie position — is where the aforementioned Nolan Lalonde of the Greyhounds has had considerably more involvement than Joey Costanzo of Windsor. Lalonde, who is a year older than Costanzo, has the OHL experience of 167 regular season games and 12 playoff contests. Costanzo, on the other hand, has been in 147 regular season games and parts of just two playoff matches in his OHL career.
Among top forwards, Marco Mignosa of the Greyhounds has played in 238 regular season games and 21 playoff contests and teammate Justin Cloutier has even more experience with 272 regular season games and 21 playoff outings. Conversely, Windsor’s leading scorer Ilya Protas — who is a rookie forward — has just 61 games of OHL experience, none of which are in the playoffs, while line mate Liam Greentree has played in 189 regular season games and just four playoff contests.
Top defensemen? Again the experience edge goes to the Greyhounds. Caedan Carlisle of the Soo has played in 245 regular season games and 20 more in the playoffs while Anthony Cristoforo of Windsor has the OHL experience of 195 games, just four of which have been playoff outings.
So, I am not buying the John Dean notion that the Greyhounds are a young team that is the underdog to the Spitfires. Nice try, though, Coach.
Oh, and by the way, Dean has way more OHL experience as a head coach than Greg Walters of the Spitfires does. Just pointing that out, as well.
At any rate, it is the Spitfires of Windsor and the Greyhounds of the Soo in a playoff matchup that just may end up being a lot closer than some people may think. And while the Greyhounds, as noted above, do have more experience in several key areas than the Spitfires do, I think that Windsor will prevail in six games, maybe even a seventh and deciding match.
Games 1 and 2 of the series are slated for Thursday and Saturday of this week in Windsor before the series shifts to Sault Ste. Marie for Games 3 and 4 next week.
Buckle up.