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John-Eric Iannicello
windsorspitfires.com
(Windsor, Ontario) The two-time MasterCard Memorial Cup and Rogers OHL Champion Windsor Spitfires stormed back from a 4-1 deficit to beat the Plymouth Whalers 5-4 at the WFCU earlier tonight. Alexander Khokhlachev tallied his first OHL goal, while Zack MacQueen and Michael MacIntyre each scored a pair of goals to edge the Whalers in game one of the season. Windsor head coach Bob Jones registered his first win as head bench boss of the Spitfires.
Prior to the drop of the puck, the Spitfires had a pregame ceremony to showcase the championship trophies won by the team last season. On hand for the ceremony were legendary Spitfires Bill Bowler, Johnny Wilson, Marcel Pronovost, and former Spitfire head coach Bob Boughner – who received a standing ovation from the Spitfire faithful. Pronovost and Wilson presented the OHL Western Conference Champions ‘Wayne Gretzky’ Trophy, while Bowler and Boughner carried the J. Ross Roberston OHL Championship and Memorial Cup championship trophies. Also in attendance were member of 16 Wing Borden for the pre-game ceremony.
The Spitfires had ten first year players dressed for tonight’s game and also making their first appearances were Andrew Clouthier (acquired from Kingston), Michael MacIntyre (acquired from Sault Ste. Marie) and Kyle Tarini (waivers from Sudbury) who were added over the past week.
Tarini made his presence felt in his first shift as he levelled defenseman Colin MacDonald along the boards in the neutral zone in an effort to spark the club. Consequently, it would be the Whalers who were the ones that carried the play in the first, as they peppered rookie goaltender Jack Campbell with eight shots in the first ten minutes of the game.
The Whalers were finally able to break the stalemate late in the first period with a goal from Alex Aleardi at 18:40. Aleardi, who was acquired earlier in the week from Belleville, was able to break in alone on Campbell shorthanded and beat him with a shot over the glove. The Whalers took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Aleardi would strike again for the Whalers at 6:07 of the second period off a great pass from Garrett Meurs that Aleardi buried past Campbell to make it 2-0 for the road side. MacIntyre would pull the Spitfires within one off a wrist shot that beat Whaler net minder Matt Mahalak through the five-hole, just as the five on three power play was about to expire. Not only was it MacIntyre’s first goal as a Spitfire, but also his first OHL goal.
A few minutes later, with the Spitfires getting into penalty trouble, the Whalers were able to add to their lead. Tyler Brown and Aleardi (who completed his hat trick) tallied on the power play to give the Whalers a 4-1 lead at12:51 of the second period. The Spitfires, with a bit of luck, cut the Whalers lead in half after Khokhlachev’s pass that was intended for MacQueen banked off a Whaler defender’s stick and into the net with just over four minutes left in the period. The shots favoured the Whalers 25 to 13 heading into the third period.
An early third period goal from MacQueen seemed to spark the Spitfires offence. At 0:44 of the third period, MacQueen found a bit of open ice in the Whalers zone and was able to snap a shot high glove to cut the Plymouth lead to one. MacQueen tallied again three minutes later when his cross crease pass deflected off the skate of a Whalers defenseman and pass Mahalak to knot the game 4-4. MacIntyre would cap off his strong Spitfire debut and give Windsor its first lead of the game, firing home a one-time pass on the power play to seal the Spitfires victory at 5-4 and give him two goals on the night.
Campbell made 27 saves on 31 shots in his regular season debut, while Mahalak turned aside 17 of the 22 shots he faced for the Whalers.
The Spitfires next game is tomorrow (Friday, September 24th) in Sarnia against the Sarnia Sting. Game time is 7:00 pm, the game can be seen live on TVCOGECO or fans can tune into AM800 to follow the game with the voice of the Spitfires, Mike Miller. Windsor then returns home this Sunday to take on the Barrie Colts at the WFCU Centre in a rematch of last year’s Rogers OHL Championship Series. Game time is set for 2 p.m., the Spitfires will be hosting the Meloche Windows Pre-Game Celebrations on the WFCU Plaza starting at noon and will be raising their championship banners prior to the start of the game.
