Spits silence the Spirit
No Liam Greentree. No A.J. Spellacy. No Ilya Protas. Minus three 18 year old forwards who are still away at National Hockey League main camps, the Spitfires nonetheless scored a 5-4 overtime victory over the Saginaw Spirit in the ’24-25 Ontario Hockey League regular season opener on Wednesday.
Forward Jack Nesbitt (photo at left), who was Windsor’s first round pick at the 2023 OHL priority selections draft, scored the game winner 59 seconds into OT as the Spitfires stunned the overflow crowd of 5,056 at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw. Nesbitt, who also had an assist, led the Spitfires with seven shots on goal.
Overage forwards Ryan Abraham and Noah Morneau, Cole Davis and defenseman Anthony Cristoforo also scored for the Spitfires. Cristoforo also had two assists as did rookie forward Ethan Belchetz. Joey Costanzo made 29 saves for Windsor.
Michael Misa had two goals for Saginaw, which played without defenseman Zayne Parekh, who is away at an NHL training camp.
Next up for the Spitfires is a road game against the Sarnia Sting on Friday of this week. Windsor’s home opener is on Saturday when the Kitchener Rangers visit the WFCU Center in a 7:05 p.m. start.