Spitfire persists in rallying with 3-2 win over Petes

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The Peterborough Peetes seemed more intent on slowing the league-leading Windsor Spitfire offense than beating the Windsor Spitfire on Thursday.

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It worked for two periods but the Spitfires remained tenacious and recovered with two unanswered goals in the third period to win 3-2 over Pete in front of 3,814 spectators at the WFCU Centre. .

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“Hamilton did it in last year’s final,” said Spitfire head coach Mark Savard. “They put everyone back in the neutral zone. We enjoy going and attacking. That’s how we play.”

“It’s hard to get through, but if you have the right systems in place and everyone is on the same page, you can get through it. It was a great win.”

The Windsor are the only team in the Ontario Hockey League not to drop a game at home in regulation, but Thursday was against a big, physical Peterborough team with a hot goalkeeper named Michael Simpson.

“We definitely knew this was going to be an ordeal for the team,” Spitfires forward Matthew Maggio said. There weren’t many.

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“They’re a really capable team and they’re going to be one of the frontrunners[in the Eastern Conference]. I thought I did a great job getting the puck into the net against a great goalkeeper.

A Windsor turnover allowed Peterborough to open the scoring just 87 seconds into the game, with JR Avon putting it just under the crossbar.

The Spitfires maintained a 15-for-7 lead in shots during the period and had some excellent scoring chances against the Simpsons.

“I think our forecheck was good,” Savard said. “I could have scored six goals in that first period.”

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The Spitfires finally scored one with 68 seconds remaining as Smith scored a 3–1 break over Alex Christopoulos to draw 1–1 after 20 minutes.

Peterborough took advantage of a sloppy line change for their only goal of the second period, with Nick Lardis scoring alone to give the Petes a 2–1 lead after 40 minutes.

“If you keep playing and keep working hard, good things will happen,” Abraham said. “It just deepens the pack. I think that’s big in a game like this. It felt like a playoff match. We just stick with it and eventually he’ll fill one. I think it will be

Abraham ran into the net and scored a point shot off Michael Renwick to tie the game.

“For good things to happen, you have to go to dirty places,” said Abraham, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall. “I think a lot of people stepped up and went into the dirty area (Thursday).

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“Our thing is to believe and I think you will achieve it. That’s what we said in the playoffs last year, so just stick with it and good things will happen.”

And the Windsors continued their push with a 10-4 shot advantage in the third period, going 34-22 overall.

“This gives us a huge boost,” Savard said. “Especially going into the third period and going 2-1 down.

Maggio scored the winner with just over three minutes to play in regulation as he drilled a shot from the top of the confrontation circle past Simpson’s blocker.

“When the puck entered the corner, I knew they were going to collapse, so I had a little bit of room to hit that shot,” Maggio said. But I put it in the net and it worked.”

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The Spitfires will take on the London Knights at the WFCU Center on Saturday.Game time is 7:05pm

spitz bit

The Spitfire assigned center Ethan Martin to the club’s affiliate Junior B LaSalle Vipers.

The Spitfires had to get Stratford Warriors, who retained Martin’s Junior B rights, to agree to the move.

The 6-foot-6, 226-pound Martin, the son of former Spitfire defenseman and captain Mike Martin, was selected in the fourth round by the Spitfires in the 2021 OHL Draft.

The 18-year-old Martin has been helpless in six games for the Spitfires this season before picking up an assist in his Vipers debut Wednesday in a 3-1 win over the Strathroy Rockets.

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Game overview

thursday results

Spitfire 3 Pete 2

Peterborough 1 1 0 – 2

Windsor 1 0 2 – 3

Early period: 1. Peterborough, Avon 8 (Panwar) 1:27, 2. Windsor, Christopoulos 12 (Smith) 18:52. Penalties: none.

Second period: 3. Peterborough, Lardis 9 (Stillman) 14:18. Penalties: Smith P (tripping) 9:24, Panwar P (holds) 10:57, Mayer P (rough), Morneau W (rough) 18:01, Maggio W (tripping) 19:25.

Third period: 4. Windsor, Abraham 7 (Renwick) 11:37, 5. Windsor, Maggio 11 (Morneau, Sobolev) 16:54. penalty: Mayer P (Interference) 7:46.

Game Statistics – SOG – Peterborough 7 11 4 – 22 Windsor 15 9 10 – 34 Goal (shot save) – Peterborough: Simpson (L, 7-3-1-2) (34-31). Windsor: Onuska (W, 7-2-3-0) (22-20). Power Play (Goal Chance) – Peterborough 0-1. Windsor 0-3. referee: Ryan Hutchison (20) and Mac Nichol (33). line judge: Ryan Cadwell (82) and Kyle Flood (66). attribute: 3,814 at the WFCU Center.

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