Sergachev returns, Spits gun down Spirit

By Todd Shearon

The Windsor Spitfires defeated the Saginaw Spirit 4-2 at the WFCU Centre for their third straight win and improved their season record to 11-4-0 putting them on top of the West Division.

Spits forward Luke Boka opened the scoring with his third goal of the season 3:21 into the second period and later added an assist to his season total of nine points.

“Our preparation for the game was really good tonight. All the boys brought it and I was happy to get the win,” said Boka. “I love the fan support and I’m excited to keep things going. We know what we have to do every night. We put out the effort to win every night and it shows.”

Aaron Luchuk, Jeremiah Addison and Jalen Chatfield each added a goal for Windsor with helpers credited to McCool, Chatfield, DiGiacinto, Carter, McEneny, Nattinen and Luchuk.

“It’s important to get things done on home ice. They’re (Saginaw) a good team and they brought it tonight but we came back with a good effort and got the solid two points we needed,” said Luchuk. “I’m getting to the dirty areas and compliments go to my line mates for getting me pucks. I’ve been lucky enough to bury a couple.”

The Spitfires welcomed the return of Mikhail Sergachev to their defensive pairings after he was sent back down to Windsor earlier this week by the Montreal Canadiens.

“I was about to get my workout done and they (Montreal) told me I was going back to Windsor. They told me my mistakes and I totally agree with them,” said Sergachev. “I’m happy to be back and get things done in Windsor. I’ve got to be quicker, think quicker and make plays quicker. I’m going to bring the right attitude, hard work as well as my offensive and defensive skills to the game.”
Sergachev had three shots and four minutes in penalties against Saginaw.

“He (Sergachev) has got better in him, he was okay tonight for sure. He hasn’t played a ton of hockey and hasn’t played 20 plus minutes,” said Spitfires associate coach Trevor Letowski. “It’s nice to see him back out there. We didn’t ease him (Sergachev) in. Overall he did some good things and offensively he was a threat and has some quality chances to score.”

Michael DiPietro stopped 25 shots for Windsor to earn his seventh win of the season.

The Spitfires host the Barrie Colts on Sunday, November 6 at 2:05 p.m. at the WFCU Centre.