Spitfires at mid season
General manager Billy Bowler likes much of what he has seen of his Windsor Spitfires at the half way point of the ’24-25 Ontario Hockey League season. Not one to get carried away with superlatives, Bowler did relay to Hockey News Windsor that it has been “a really good start” for the Spitfires through 33 matches of the 68-game regular season slate.
Really good start, for sure.
The Spitfires, who are in first place among the five teams of the West Division, second in the 10 member Western Conference and tied for second overall in the entire 20 team OHL, have a rousing record of 23-7-3 at the Christmas holiday break. They have a home mark of 14-2-1 and are 9-5-2 on the road.
And Bowler as the GM takes pride in what head coach Greg Walters, his assistants, and the Spitfires have accomplished at this stage of the ’24-25 OHL campaign.
“I am really proud of our coaching staff and our players,” said Bowler. “Hopefully we can mimic our record from the first half of the season into the second half. To have the record that we have at this stage of the season is the result of a total team effort and the job that our coaches have done.”
Bowler noted the contributions of two experienced newcomers who have aided the Spitfire resurgence from a year ago — when they finished 19th among the 20 teams of the OHL with a record of 18-42-8 — namely import forward Ilya Protas and overage defenseman Tnias Mathurin, who was acquired in an off season trade with the North Bay Battalion.
The leadership group, led by captain Liam Greentree, has also been evident as has the play of workhorse veteran goalie Joey Costanzo. Costanzo struggled along with the rest of the Spitfires last season but thus far this season leads all OHL goalies in wins with 20.
“I am not surprised in the least at how well Costanzo has played,” said Bowler. “You and I talked about him during the summer and I told you then that I had absolutely no doubts about Joey.”
ICE CHIPS: The Spitfires have eight players who have 20 points or more. They are Liam Greentree(21-31-52), Ilya Protas (19-26-45), Noah Morneau (11-23-34), Jack Nesbitt (13-16-29), Ryan Abraham (11-17-28), defenseman Anthony Cristoforo (6-18-24), A.J. Spellacy (11-11-22) and Cole Davis (11-10-21) … Cristoforo leads the Spitfire plus minus category with a +29 followed by Greentree with a +24 … Goalie Joey Costanzo leads the OHL in wins with 20. His overall stats include a record of 20-5-1 to go with a 2.37 goals against average, .915 save percentage and two shutouts … On the road is where Windsor will head after the break with back to back games up north on December 28-29 against the below .500 Soo Greyhounds. The Greyhounds have taken two of three games from the Spitfires thus far this season. The Spitfires began the six game regular season slate between the two teams with a 5-0 whitewash. The Greyhounds then responded with a 3-1 road victory and then won 2-1 in overtime in the Soo from which the Spitfires gained a point … All Spitfire games are broadcast live on radio station AM 800 CKLW with the venerable Steve Bell and his self styled play by play yell …