Murphy’s Law

Spits defenceman goes from goat to hero

by Rob Benneian

It was a game that could have ended much differently for Windsor Spitfires defenceman Trevor Murphy.

Early in the third period, with the Spits and Oshawa Generals tied at two goals apiece, Murphy got tangled up along the boards in his defensive zone with Gens forward Boone Jenner.

“I kinda squeezed him out and he tripped over the ref, and the ref blamed me for it I guess,” said Murphy, who drew a minor penalty for tripping on the play.

He would compound the problem by arguing the call, for which he was slapped with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

“I just lost my mind as soon as he called it.”

Giving the Generals, fourth in the Ontario Hockey League in power play goals scored, four minutes of man-advantage time with which to work could have proved costly.

Instead, the Spitfires killed off both Murphy penalties without allowing a shot on goal setting the stage for Murphy to play the hero.

“I took it from (Brady) Vailer and I thought (Nick) Eebs was gonna crack it from the wing, so I just peeled over top of him,” Murphy said, describing how his game-winning goal unfolded. “I just let ‘er go and it found a way home.”

The goal gave Windsor a 3-2 lead with less than two minutes to play, guiding them to a season-high four-game winning streak.

D.J. returns

The game marked the return of D.J. Smith to the WFCU Centre, who was an assistant coach with the Spitfires during their 2009 and 2010 Memorial Cup championships.

Now serving as the head coach of the Oshawa Generals, Smith has his team in prime position, sitting second in the East Division.

“It’s great,” Smith said. “We’ve had ups and downs, a few injuries here and there but we’ve had our good spells and hopefully in the second half we can get rolling and try to win a division.”

Smith, a Windsor native who played 188 games over three seasons in a Spitfires uniform, had many supporters in the crowd of 5,670 who took in the game. Some fans even brought home-made signs to show their appreciation.

Even the typically hyper-competitive Spitfires coach was feeling generous following the game.

“I’m gonna take the two points, but in a perfect world it would have been a 3-2 win in overtime so Doggy (D.J. Smith) gets a point too,” Boughner said.

When the Kitchener Rangers come calling Thursday night, one would expect Boughner won’t be so gracious.