When Zack Kassian was traded to Windsor from Peterborough last season, he went on to play a key role in helping the team to its second straight Memorial Cup title.
And tonight, in a return visit to face his former team, he reminded Petes fans what they're missing.
Kassian had two goals and two assists, as the Spits thumped the Petes for the second time in six days, in a 7-1 win.
Troy Passingham was outstanding for Windsor (16-11-0-1), making 37 saves to win his seventh game in nine decisions.
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| Troy Passingham Photo By Joe Lemire / In Play! Magazine |
QUIET FIRST
Passingham was the story of the opening period, making 11 stops - several of them eye-poppers, including a save-of-the-year candidate on a lunging effort to rob Lino Martschini.
The veteran goaltender kept the game scoreless, as the Spits weren't sharp in the opening 20 minutes.
QUICK STRIKE KASS
With the game still 0-0, late in the second, it was Kassian that got the Spits going with a pair of quick goals.
Barreling down the right wing, on a 2-on-1 rush with Eric Locke, Kassian beat Bryce O'Hagan with a quick, hard shot to the low glove side to make it 1-0 Windsor.
During his next shift, Kassian struck again on a magnificent play to make it 2-0. The big winger picked up a loose puck in his own zone and blew through the entire Peterborough team, before racing in on the left wing and shovelling home his 14th of the season.
The Spits took their two-goal lead to the third.
ANOTHER BIG FINISH
Alan Quine briefly cut the lead to 2-1, with his 12th of the season, just 53 seconds into the third period.
But it was all Windsor from there, as the Spits scored five times in a 15-minute span.
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| Zack Kassian Photo by Joe Lemire / In Play! Magazine |
And again, Kassian was the catalyst.
On the power play, number-19 found a streaking Alexander Khokhlachev for a tip-in goal to make it 3-1 Windsor, at 4:39. About a minute later, and still on the power play, Kassian fed Zack MacQueen, who found Nick Ebert cross-crease to make it 4-1.
Stephen Johnston put the game out of reach at the 6:53 mark, scoring his sixth of the year off a nifty give-and-go between Ryan Ellis and Eric Locke.
Michael MacIntyre and Brendan McCann added late goals to round out the scoring.
NOTES
*The Spits have 11 goals in the third period of their last two games with the Petes. They scored six in the third in a 7-2 win at the WFCU Centre, on Sunday.
*Goalie Bryce O'Hagan gave up all seven Windsor goals on 35 shots.
*McCann's tally came at 19:59 and was his first Spitfires goal.
SHOTS ON GOAL
PETERBOROUGH 38, WINDSOR 35
POWER PLAYS
WINDSOR 2-FOR-5
PETERBOROUGH 0-FOR-5
SCORING
FIRST PERIOD
No Scoring
SECOND PERIOD
WSR Kassian, (13) (Ellis), 14:15
WSR Kassian, (14) (Duininck, Ebert), 17:03
THIRD PERIOD
PBO Quine, (12) (Martschini, Larson), 0:53
WSR Khokhlachev, (15) (Kassian, Kuhnhackl), 4:39 (PP)
WSR Ebert, (5) (MacQueen, Kassian), 5:35 (PP)
WSR Johnston, (6) (Ellis, Locke), 6:53
WSR MacIntyre, (6) (Vail), 17:47
WSR McCann, (1) (Vail, Khokhlachev), 19:59
