Spitfires resume flight
Three successive victories last week — all in the space of three days and against teams with winning records — have the Spitfires back on track and within two points of first place within the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League.
Windsor edged the Barrie Colts 2-1, upended the Kitchener Rangers 3-1 and doubled up the Ottawa 67’s by a 6-3 score to improve its record to 17-5-2. After starting the ’24-25 season with a record of 10-1-1 the Spitfires went into a bit of a tailspin and were 4-4-1 over their next nine outings before the current three game win streak.
The Spitfires are a point up on the 16-5-3 Rangers and two points back of the pace-setting London Knights, who have won 15 straight games for a league-best record of 19-4-0.
Windsor plays host to the Saginaw Spirit on Wednesday in a 7:05 p.m. opening face-off at the WFCU Center. The Spitfires then go on the road for games at Guelph on Friday and Owen Sound on Saturday.
Meanwhile, general manager Billy Bowler told Hockey News Windsor that the Spitfires record of 17-5-2 relates to “the work that our players put in during the off season. Credit to our coaching staff as well for our record to date. They are all together in this.”
When it was mentioned that the 17 wins in 24 games thus far is only one fewer than Windsor managed in 68 contests in all of ’23-24, Bowler replied: “There you go. That says a lot right there.”
ICE CHIPS: Windsor’s power play proficiency of 26.8 per cent is second only to London among the 10 teams of the Western Conference. The Knights are clicking at 28.1 per cent … Captain Liam Greentree leads the Spitfires in scoring with 13 goals, 24 assists, 37 points. Up next are Ilya Protas at 13-15-28, Noah Morneau at 8-16-24, Ryan Abraham at 8-15-23 and Jack Nesbitt at 11-9-20 … Windsor goalie Joey Costanzo is among the league’s best with a 14-4-1 record to go with a 2.34 goals against average and .917 save percentage … Defenseman Anthony Cristoforo leads the Windsor plus-minus department with a +27 … The Spitfires are trying to find a trade partner for 2005 birth year defenseman Tanner Winegard. Winegard is a victim to the numbers game with the Spitfires committed to giving playing time to rookie defenders Adrian Manzo and Carter Hicks. Manzo has a 2007 birth date and Hicks was born in 2008 … Michael Misa of Saginaw leads the OHL in scoring and is averaging two points per game with 23-23-46 totals in 23 games …