Spits snap five-game skid

by Evan Mathias

It was a night of firsts for the Windsor Spitfires.
The Spits got their first win in six games against the Erie Otters Feb. 21 and Spits call-up Graeme Brown scored his first Ontario Hockey League goal and assist.
Windsor overcame their offensive woes with eight goals, including five in the third period, but struggled defensively allowing five goals.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take any win at this point,” said Spits head coach Bob Boughner. “I didn’t like some of the (defensive) breakdowns, still thinking offence first at times.”
Boughner said there were some positives to take away from the game and things to build on moving forward. One of which were the special teams play against the Otters. Windsor killed off all six penalties they faced and scored on four out of eight power play attempts.
“We did what we had to do. I thought we blocked a lot of shots on our penalty kill tonight and I thought that was a big difference,” said Boughner. “We got back to a shooting mentality (on power plays) and we got away from that the last couple games. It was good to see guys get pucks to the net.”
In addition to being unable to score on their power play opportunities, the Otters also struggled to get scoring chances.
“On the power play we didn’t generate anything,” said Otters head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Of the (six) power plays we had, we maybe had one opportunity where we created something. Other than that it was just a waste of time.”
Windsor has struggled being consistent with both their offence and defence.
“We had turnovers tonight where there didn’t need to be and that’s why we got five scored on us,” said Boughner.
Windsor battled back to tie the game at two apiece after the first period on goals from forwards Alex Aleardi and Alex Khokhlachev.
Remy Giftopoulos scored on an early second period power play to go up 3-2. Erie responded with goals from J.P Lobardo and Dane Fox and Windsor found themselves down 4-3 going into the third period.
Ben Johnson started the third period offensive barrage for Windsor on a pass from Brown.
Windsor scored three more goals over an eight-minute span including Brown’s first OHL goal as well as Aleardi’s and Johnson’s second goal of the game.
“Definitely the biggest goal of my career so far,” said Brown. “I haven’t had one of importance like that before.”
Spits forward Kerby Rychel capped the Spits scoring on an empty net with his fifth point of the night.
Windsor picked up two important points in their hunt for the playoffs. The Spits head to Plymouth tonight for a game against the Whalers. They also take on the Whalers at home on Feb. 24.
“We’re going to work hard all the way to the end and its nice to get two points tonight,” said Rychel.
With ten games remaining in the season the Spits still sit nine points back of the Saginaw Spirit in the OHL’s Western Conference.
“We just have to look game by game, not look at the standings,” said Aleardi. “We have to do what we can do and just control what you can control.”