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By John-Eric Iannicello
windsorspitfires.com
(Windsor, Ontario) The Windsor Spitfires welcomed the Plymouth Whalers to Windsor for the back end of a home and home series to open the 2010 pre-season. Alexander Khokhlachev had a hat-trick in his first game as a Windsor Spitfire and Bob Jones won his first game as Windsor’s head coach, with the Spitfires defeating the Plymouth Whalers 6-2 in a hard fought battle on Monday afternoon at the WFCU Centre.
The first period was sloppy on both sides for the first 10 minutes of the game with both teams failing to connect on passes. Plymouth opened the game playing their usual physical brand of hockey, but the Spitfires refused to be intimated and at 7:36 of the first period Russian draft-pick Alex Khokhlachev scored his first goal of the pre-season from a pass that deflected off a Plymouth defender right to his stick to give the Spitfires the early 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later, Plymouth defender Austin Levi would take a roughing penalty after retaliating against Windsor’s Nick Cznider to give the Spitfires their second power play of the game. It didn’t take the Spitfires long to capitalize as Khokhlachev would tally again for the Spitfires, using great poise to walk around Plymouth netminder Matt Mahalak to make it 2-0.
Not long after Windsor’s second goal, Plymouth forward Rickard Rackell rebounded with a shot from behind Windsor’s net that banked off goaltender Jack Campbell to cut the lead in half at 2-1. Windsor regained their two goal advantage to make it a 3-1 contest on a Michael Whaley marker that seemed to handcuff Mahalak. Nearing the end of the first period, Khokhlachev was able to complete the hat-trick on the power-play after blasting home a one timer from Zack Kassian in the high slot and Windsor took a 4-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.
The second period saw a better flow to the hockey game as the play picked up and the tempers of the two teams started to rise. Troy Passingham would take over for the rest of the game for Windsor at the start of the second period as the Spitfires opted to relieve Campbell who made seven saves in the first period. Scott Wedgewood would come in to replace Mahalak half-way through the second, after Mahalak stopped 18 of 22 shots for the Whalers.
Chris Albertini of Plymouth cut Windsor’s lead in half again to 4-2 in the middle frame after finishing off a two-on-one play with Stefan Noesen, and soon after the goal was scored a fight broke out between Plymouth’s Max Iafrate and Michael Clarke – both players were ejected from the game. Windsor would find the back of the net once again on an expiring two-man advantage when 16-year-old rookie defender Nick Ebert’s wrist shot made its way to the top corner, giving the Spitfires a 5-2 edge after two periods.
In the third period, the Whalers had an opportunity to climb out of their three goal deficit when Noesen was awarded a penalty shot after being up-ended by Khokhlachev, but he failed to capitalize on the opportunity. Physical play on both sides picked up as three fights broke out leaving the Spitfires with only seven players on the bench. Lanoue would cap the game off with a power-play goal at 12:38 of the third period to extend the Spitfire lead 6-2, Khokhlachev also assisted on the goal giving him four points in his first OHL pre-season game.
Passingham finished the game with 22 saves through two periods of work, while Wedgewood made eight.
The Spitfires next game is this Thursday (September 9th) against the visiting Czech Republic national junior team. Game time is 7:05pm.
