By Chris Lucas
In Play Magazine
The Windsor Spitfires blew out the Saginaw Spirit 7-1 with only a few games left before playoffs.
After half a period of no goals or no penalties, Adam Henrique started the scoring off for Windsor. Saginaw's points leader Jordan Skellet, put the Spirit on the board to tie it up. Henrique then crashed the net and scored his second of the game.
Early in the second, Henrique sniped one home to pick up the hat-trick. Then Taylor Hall would finish the tic-tac-toe play to give Windsor a three point lead. A few shifts later, Hall took a beating and worked really hard fighting off two defenseman and it paid off as he scored his second. Scott Timmins would take a blistering one-timer to take a huge 6-1 lead.
Timmins would pot another one in the third as the Spits went on to win 7-1.
Tonight the Spits tripled Saginaw in shots as they beat them 57-19. That is very important and will be a big factor come playoff time.
Tonight's In Play! Magazine player of the game goes to Hall. Although Henrique contributed a hat-trick to tonight's win, Hall was given player of the game because he scored his 100th point of the season for the second year in a row. Hall and Henrique both contributed five points.
Hall tells In Play! his thoughts on reaching the 100 point mark.
“It was definitely a good night. Me, Henrique and Mitchell had good chemistry and to get five points tonight is certainly an accomplishment but I'm glad to reach the 100 mark.”
Windsor will stay at home next as they take on the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Sunday. Game time will start at 2 p.m.
Spitfires’ Game Notes
Courtesy Windsor Spitfires
- With tonight’s win, Windsor, ranked 3rd in the CHL, still leads the Western Conference and have 101 points this season, eclipsing the 100 point mark for the second consecutive season on the strength of a 48-11-0-5 record. This is the first time in franchise history that the Spitfires have recorded consecutive 100+ point seasons, as last year’s squad registered 115 points. Windsor has three seasons during which the team surpassed 100 points as the 1987-1988 Compuware Spitfires registered a 102 point season.
- Windsor leads the season series against the Saginaw Spirit at 4-1-0-1
- Windsor records 57 shots on goal and outshot the Spirit 57-19, this was the 87th game in which the Spitfires have recorded 50 or more shots on goal in this season.
- Forward Adam Henrique scored a hat-trick in tonight’s game, netting three goals and adding one assist with a +5 plus-minus rating as he was named the Penalty Box first star of the game. Henrique Is ranked 14th in the OHL with 75 points in 51 games and is eighth in the league with 37 goals. He is also tied for fifth with teammate Ryan Ellis with a +37 plus-minus rating.
- Forward Taylor Hall scores two goals and added three assists with a +5 plus-minus rating in tonight’s game as he was selected as the Penalty Box second star of the game. With his five point performance, Hall has 100 points this season and is now the OHL’s leading scorer. He also became the first Spitfire to record a 100 point season since the 2002-2003 season, when Kyle Wellwood had 100 points in 57 games. Hall leads all OHL players in assists with 62, is ranked third in the league with a +44 plus-minus rating and is seventh in goals with 38, having played 55 games this season. He has points in 25 of his past 26 games
- Forward Dale Mitchell had three assists tonight with a +5 plus-minus rating and was selected as the Penalty Box third star of the game. In 28 games this season, Mitchell has 14 goals and 24 assists for 38 points with a +19 plus-minus rating.
- Goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 18 of 19 shots that he faced in tonight’s win. Grubauer is ranked ninth in the OHL this season with a .913 save percentage and is tied for eighth OHL with a 2.84 goals against average. He is 12-1-0-1 since joining the Spitfires and has a 2.22 goals against average and .911 save percentage with Windsor.
- Windsor’s Zack Kassian sat out the last of his 20 game suspension and will be playing this Sunday as the Spitfires face the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Greg Nemisz, Saverio Posa and James Woodcroft missed tonight’s game due to injuries.
- With tonight’s crowd of 6,254, the team has welcomed over 200,000 fans to the WFCU Centre this season, which is a franchise record.
- Windsor scored seven goals tonight, which now makes this the team’s sixth most prolific goal scoring season with 315 goals, surpassing last year’s team which scored 311 goals.
-Windsor records 57 shots on goal and outshot the Spirit 57-19, this was the 18th game in which the Spitfires have recorded 50 or more shots on goal in this season.
- Windsor can clinch the Western Conference regular season title with two wins in their last four games or to win one game, coupled with a London Knights loss. This would be the second consecutive season during which the Spitfires have won the Western Conference regular season title. The London Knights currently have 95 points with 4 games remaining and are ranked second in the OHL’s Western Conference.
