The Windsor Spitfires were shorthanded six times Thursday night but killed off every penalty on their way to a 4-1 victory over the Peterborough Petes before 3,566 fans at the WFCU Centre.
The Spits' penalty killing unit burned off three shorthanded situations in the second period and three more in the third period. Christian Fischer led the scoring with a goal and two assists as the team improved to 4-0-1 on the season.
Spitfires Head Coach Rocky Thompson says he was not excited about being in the penalty box so much, but he will take the win.
"It was a little ugly on our part tonight," says Thompson. "We didn't come out like I would have expected us to. We had a good week of practice but thank goodness (Michael) Giugovaz was there. He made some enormous saves to keep it closer."
Giugovaz says he was grateful to get the win at this early point in the season.
"It wasn't an easy game and with the upcoming schedule, nothing's ever easy," says Giugovaz. "Getting those points is huge at this time of the year, everything's up for grabs. It's good that we're making leeway here."
The teams exchanged goals in the first period with Peterborough's Greg Betzold opening the scoring. 57 seconds later, Gabriel Vilardi had the equalizer for Windsor, his fourth goal of the year. Christiano DiGiacinto broke the tie in the second period with his second lamplighter of the year. Adam Luchuk added to Windsor's lead in the third period with his third goal of the year while Fischer's empty-netter with 40 seconds left in the game sealed the victory for the Spits.
DiGiacinto, for his part, is pleased with the way the team is playing right now.
"Things are clicking for us, we got new systems that are working," says DiGiacinto. "Everyone on the team's producing, goaltending, defence, forwards, everyone's going. Things are great."
The Spitfires continue this stretch of three consecutive games going into Thanksgiving weekend with a road tilt Friday night at Kitchener, then Saturday night in Erie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-65FQr9-oX4
(Video highlights courtesy TVCogeco Windsor YouTube)