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By John-Eric Iannicello
windsorspitfires.com
(Windsor, Ontario) Windsor finished their preseason schedule with a 4-1-1 record as they beat the Erie Otters 5-4 Saturday night. Grant Webermin, who has been sidelined with a lower body injury since August, made his Spitfire debut and Tom Kuhnhackl (PIT ’10 NHL Draft Choice) registered two goals and two assists in the win.
The Spitfires struck early in the game on the power play as Kuhnhackl redirected a Zack MacQueen pass from the corner to beat Erie’s goaltender Ramis Sadikov at 0:53 of the first period. Erie would respond two minutes later on a power play of their own as Shawn Szydlowski calmly tucked home a rebound off of Spitfire goaltender Troy Passingham to tie the game up at one a piece. On their second power play of the game, the Spitfires first-year defenceman Nick Ebert buried his third goal of the preseason when he astutely pinched in off the point and jumped on a Steven Trojanovic rebound that Sadikov was unable to get a handle on. Likewise at the other end of the ice, Passingham was unable to swallow an Erie defender’s point shot and Derek Holden tied the game up again 2-2 at the eleven minute mark of the first period.
Passingham came up big for the Spitfires shortly after when he shut the door on veteran forward Anthony Luciani. Luciani was able to slip by the Spitfire defenders on the far side of the ice where he had a clear path to the net, but failed in his attempt to slide the puck through Passingham’s legs.
The breakaway save would prove to be significant later in the period as the Spitfires took the lead again at 18:58 of the first period. Kuhnhackl made a short three-foot pass to a streaking Nick Cznider who fired a bullet over Sadikov’s shoulder to give the Spitfires a 3-2 lead heading into the second period.
The fresh ice of the second period saw both teams exchange quality chances early. Luciani was foiled in his attempt to break through two Spitfires defensemen and Kuhnhackl almost found the stick of MacQueen who was heading to the Erie net with a full head of steam.
As the chances started to mount on both sides, so did the physical play. After Webermin was called for a check from behind, Erie forward Mac MacDonell attempted to confront Webermin and was intercepted by an eager Steven Trojanovic. Trojanovic received the only fighting major and an instigating penalty on the play. On the ensuing power play, Erie made quick work of their man advantage as Mike Cazzola redirected a Mitch Gaulton (NYR ’08 NHL Draft Choice) point shot to knot the game back up at 3-3.
Still on the penalty kill, Kuhnhackl orchestrated a fancy give and go with Alexander Khoklachev that saw Khokhlachev send a pin-point pass from the Erie blue line to a darting Kuhnhackl. Kuhnhackl broke the check of his defender just in time to redirect the hard pass by Sadikov to put the Spitfires up 4-3 entering the final period of play.
Josh Malecki would take over for Troy Passingham in the third period, and was tested early in the period when the Spitfires went down a man. Luciani was left alone in the slot on the Erie power play with a point blank shot that was stopped by Malecki.
The back-and-forth game continued when Kuhnhackl made a pass from behind the Erie net that found Khokhlachev in a glut of players stationed in front of Sadikov to make it 5-3. Refusing to quit, Erie responded late in the third period with a goal from Connor Crisp that went off the post and into the net at 17:30 of the third period.
After a timeout late in the third period, and the goalie pulled Erie was unable to pull themselves even with the Spitfires and finished their preseason winless with a 0-0-4 record.
Passingham made 29 saves through his two periods of work, while Malecki turned aside 13 shots in his single period of play. The shots were 46-34 in favour of Erie. Spitfire forward Alexander Khokhlachev registered one goal and two assists in tonight’s game and led all Spitfire scorers during the 2010 exhibition season with four goals scored and 13 points in five games played.
Earlier today, the Spitfires claimed veteran forward Kyle Tarini off of waivers from the Sudbury Wolves. In 63 games with the Wolves last season, the 20-year-old Tarini scored five goals and assisted on nine others while also amassing 135 penalty minutes. The Spitfires also signed goaltender Josh Malecki to an OHL contract and education package. In the four exhibition games played with Windsor, Malecki helped lead the team to a 3-0-1 record while posting a 2.98 goals against average and .903 save percentage.
The Spitfires, two-time defending MasterCard Memorial Cup and Rogers OHL Champions, kick-off the 2010-11 season this Thursday (September 23rd) against the rival Plymouth Whalers at the WFCU.
