Spitfires are road tested
Five of their first seven games of the ’24-25 Ontario Hockey League regular season have been away from home. And as the Spitfires return to their own rink for a Thanksgiving Day matinee match against the Oshawa Generals, Windsor is in a good position with an overall record of 5-1-1.
The Spitfires have been kings of the road with a 3-1-1 record and are a perfect 2-0-0 in their only two home matches. Quite clearly, the Spitfires have reacted in positive form to first year head coach Greg Walters, who never had a losing record as an OHL bench boss in four previous seasons, two with the Oshawa Generals and two more with the Owen Sound Attack.
Even with four 2008 birth year rookies in the lineup, Windsor has flourished and through the seven games to date, the Spitfires have outscored their opponents by a resounding 41 to 23 margin. In fact, two of the ’08 rookies, forwards Ethan Belchetz and J.C. Lemieux, are among the Windsor scoring leaders.
Belchetz is second in team scoring with four goals, six assists, 10 points. And Lemieux has three goals, three assists, six points despite having played in just five games. Windsor took Belchetz with the first overall pick of this year’s OHL priority selections draft while Lemieux was a second round choice by Spitfires general manager Billy Bowler.
Following the 2:05 p.m. game on Thanksgiving Monday, the Spitfires go out on the road again for contests on Friday, Oct. 18 at Guelph and Saturday, Oct. 19 at Owen Sound. Which means the Spitfires will have played seven of their first 10 games of the season on the road.
ICE CHIPS: Captain Liam Greentree is atop the Spitfire scoring chart with two goals, 10 assists, 12 points … Ilya Protas leads the Spitfires in goals with five, Ethan Belchetz, Jack Nesbitt and Ryan Abraham all have four while Noah Morneau, A.J. Spellacy, J.C. Lemieux, Cole Davis and Nathan Gaymes have all tallied three times apiece … Morneau (2020) and Gaymes (2022) were both 15th and final round picks by Windsor … 20 of the 21 Spitfire skaters have at least one point thus far this season …