The Windsor Spitfires finally put up a winner in overtime Sunday afternoon, solving their three-on-three woes at home.
Jalen Chatfield took a pass from Bradley Latour and slid it past the Kitchener Rangers' Luke Richardson to give the Spitfires a 4-3 overtime win before 4,610 spectators at the WFCU Centre. This was the first overtime victory at home for the Spitfires after four unsuccessful tries.
Chatfield says he was not sure the winning goal entered the net at first.
"I think (Richardson) made the glove save on it, but I kind of went past the goal line and got the goal," he says.
The victory capped a successful weekend for the Spitfires, who collected five out of a possible six points, with the odd point coming off of their overtime loss at home Thursday night to Mississauga.
Defenceman Logan Stanley says it was nice to come out on the right side of overtime for a change.
"We've had a few games go the wrong way for us," says Stanley, who had a minus-one and a shot on goal for the contest. "It was exciting and we worked hard, and we deserved that one I think."
The Spitfires started strong against the third-ranked junior team in the country, getting the scoring going with Cristiano DiGiacinto's 12th goal of the season at 7:32 into the opening period. This prompted a flurry of teddy bears being tossed onto the ice as part of the team's charity teddy bear promotion.
Spitfires players helped volunteers clean up the bears, and just 32 seconds after the first goal Gabriel Vilardi scored his ninth of the year to make it 2-0 Windsor. Kitchener clawed back into the game in the second period, with Darcy Llewellyn scoring at 3:32 in. The Rangers brought the equalizer at 12:34 with Gustav Franzen's seventh season goal.
Llewellyn would go to the box a couple of minutes later and the Spits took advantage, regaining the lead with a Bradley Latour goal at 15:31. However, Ryan MacInnis would tie things up for Kitchener less than three minutes after that, also an extra-man tally.
The play turned physical in the third period with Stanley engaging in fisticuffs with Kitchener's Frank Hora and both heading to the bench to serve fighting majors. Things took a bizarre turn midway through the third during a melee when DiGiacinto appeared to take two shots to the face, according to Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson.
Thompson commends DiGiacinto for taking the high road.
"He kept his composure which was good," he says. "People aren't going to get things right all the time. He would have been emotional and it would have hurt him as the game went on."
DiGiacinto did get a minor penalty, but teammate Mikhail Sergachev joined him in the box for a head butt penalty during the melee. The Kitchener box was also standing-room only with players serving penalties.
With the win, the Spitfires extended their lead atop the West Division over the Sarnia Sting by seven points. Windsor hosts the Saginaw Spirit Thursday night in the first game of a home-and-away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVR5KqUb3ZY
(Video highlights courtesy TVCogeco Windsor YouTube)