Spits 7, Fronts 6
With the winter's first big snowstorm crashing down outside the WFCU Centre, the Windsor Spitfires unleashed a flurry of goals for the second straight game, beating the road-weary Kingston Frontenacs, 7-6, on Sunday afternoon.
Derek Lanoue scored twice, including the game winner, Nick Ebert had a goal and two assists and Tom Kuhnhackl added four assists as the Spitfires won their fifth straight - and 20th game of the season - before a late-arriving, but enthusiastic crowd of 6,384.
The Spitfires (20-11-0-1) got off to a slow start against the Fronts, who were missing several regulars and were billed as a tired team, coming off a pair of losses in Saginaw and Plymouth on Friday and Saturday night.
Charles Sarault opened the scoring for the Fronts just 21 seconds into the game. And by the midway mark of the period, things looked bleak as the Spits trailed 3-0 on goals by Nathan Cull and Nathan Moon.
But after Nick Ebert got the Spits on the board, on the power play, at 14:58, Stephen Johnston gave the home side new life with a great individual effort.
Johnston brought big speed through the neutral zone, busted into the Kingston zone down the right wing and cut to the net before beating former Spitfires goalie Philipp Grubauer with just 26 seconds left in the opening frame.
BACK AND FORTH
From there, the game was a blur of goals and lead changes at times.
Craig Duininck briefly pulled the Spitfires even with a power play goal at the 1:57 mark of the second period.
Then, after Alex Gudbranson restored Kingston's lead at 4-3, Derek Lanoue pulled the Spits even again. His first of the game and fourth of the season came on a nice tip-in of a Michael MacIntyre shot from the point.
Windsor took a two-goal lead with another burst of offense in the second half of the period.
Zack MacQueen roofed one past Grubauer - off a nice feed from Alex Khokhlachev - to make it 5-4 at 12:25, before KoKo sniped one of his own just 1:46 later, on the power play, to make it 6-4.
But Taylor Doherty answered just nine seconds later on a bomb that beat Jack Campbell. And Ryan Spooner scored with a brilliant shot on a breakaway, just 90 seconds later, to tie things at 6-6 after two periods.
Lanoue's second of the afternoon put the Spits up for good at the 4:52 mark of the third.
From there, the home side made the goal stand up with some solid defensive play, limiting the Frontenacs to just seven shots in the third period.
NOTES
It wasn't a very impressive game for Windsor goaltenders. Kingston only had 22 shots in the game and Troy Passingham was replaced by Jack Campbell after giving up the first three goals...Windsor's strong special teams play continued. A night after scoring three shorthanded goals and a power play marker against Sarnia, the Spitfires had three more PPGs in Sunday's game...The Spitfires have now scored 32 goals in their last five games, bringing their season total up to 132. That's the third most in the OHL behind Owen Sound (139) and Ottawa (135) ... The Frontenacs dressed only four defencemen due to injury and Erik Gudbranson being away at Team Canada's World Junior Selection Camp. The Spits dressed only five.
SHOTS ON GOAL
WINDSOR 40, KINGSTON 22
SCORING
FIRST PERIOD
KGN Sarault, (6) (Durocher), 0:21
KGN Cull, (2) (Green), 2:43
KGN Moon, (19) , 9:17
WSR Ebert, (8) (Kuhnhackl, Ryan), 14:58 (PP)
WSR Johnston, (7) (Ebert), 19:34
SECOND PERIOD
WSR Duininck, (2) (Kuhnhackl, Ebert), 1:57 (PP)
KGN Gudbranson, (2) (Durocher, Sarault), 5:36
WSR Lanoue, (4) (MacIntyre, Locke), 7:52
WSR MacQueen, (9) (Khokhlachev, Kuhnhackl), 12:25
WSR Khokhlachev, (16) (Kuhnhackl, Ryan), 14:11 (PP)
KGN Doherty, (5) , 14:20
KGN Spooner, (18) (Stokes), 15:51
THIRD PERIOD
WSR Lanoue, (5) (Johnston, Locke), 4:52
