Windsor Climbs Over First Hurdle: Bring on the Spirit

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by David Clark

Saginaw got the better of the Windsor Spitfires this season by taking 4 of 6 games. On the last game of the season, Windsor handed the Spirit a loss that gave the Spits home-ice advantage in the 1^st round. A statement was made.

The 1^st round matchup with the Guelph Storm saw Saginaw struggle early in the series, losing two contests to the 7^th seeded Storm. Games 2 and 3 were in favour of the Storm at 6-2 and 7-3. Saginaw was a little spooked by this and turned things around, eventually winning the series. At the same time, Windsor was fighting with Erie in a closely-matched affair.

The Spirit have a lot of firepower spread across the roster with 4  bonifide point-getters  operating successfully in the playoffs so far this year. Josh Shalla was their leading scorer during the regular season with 72 points and 47 of those were goals. He is also tops on Saginaw in the playoffs and is the number 5 player in the OHL playoffs right now. Shalla isn’t the Captain but he is a natural leader on the team. He has 11 points at the moment.

Captain Jordan Szwarz (7), Vincent Trochek (7) and U.S. born Brandon Saad are all sporting 7 points at this time. John McFarland is another solid contributor who has turned out to be a great addition to the Spirit after a trade with the Sudbury Wolves. He plays determined and will be a leader wherever he plays down the road. He has 6 points already in the 2010/2011 campaign.

Ben Chariot is one of Saginaw’s most effective defenceman along with hard-hitting Dalton Prout from the Barrie Colts who hails from Kingsville. Chariot was traded to Saginaw this year, coming from Sudbury along with forward John McFarland. In another trade with the Barrie Colts a couple of years ago, Ryan O’Connor is the highest scoring defenceman on the Spirit with an impressive 41 points for the season. In the playoffs this year, he has six points. 

Another former Barrie Colt, Mavric Parks is the number one in Saginaw who carries a hefty 4.47 GAA and a low Save % @ 0.872. Like the playoffs in 2010 with the Colts, Parks exited the playoffs with a GAA @ 2.29 and a solid record at 7-2. He needs to improve his numbers today or Galansky could move into his spot.

Saginaw led the West Division all season long, that’s a real accomplishment but this is the playoffs where most teams elevate their play. The Spitfires just defeated a tough Erie team. They are more than prepared to square-off against Saginaw after an intense and challenging 7 game series with one of the hottest teams in the league in the second half. The Spirit are a hard-working club who have a lot of chemistry as a team but Windsor is playing their best hockey since 2010 and their talent is highly recognized in OHL circles. Saginaw may get a rude awakening if the Spitfires play the brand of hockey they exhibited in the last round.    

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