The Windsor Spitfires gather at centre ice during pregame ceremonies before their home opener, Thursday, September 24.  The Spitfires lost in overtime 4-3. (Photo by Mark Brown)The Windsor Spitfires gather at centre ice during pregame ceremonies before their home opener, Thursday, September 24. The Spitfires lost in overtime 4-3. (Photo by Mark Brown)
Windsor

Spitfires Drop Opener In Overtime (Video)

(Video highlights courtesy TVCogeco Windsor YouTube)

The Windsor Spitfires dropped their season-opener 4 -3 in overtime to the Erie Otters before an announced crowd of 5,250.

Bradley Latour picked up where he left off last season with the Memorial Cup champion Oshawa Generals, scoring a goal and two assists in his Windsor debut.

Thompson says he is confident that Latour will be able to continue the winning form that made him a key off season pickup.

"I think his role will be increased here," says Thompson. "Oshawa was so deep and Bradley still had a statistically good season last year, but ultimately he's going to play more power play minutes for us than with Oshawa, so a greater opportunity for him to step up and be kind of a leader."

Erie opened the scoring in the first period on a Kyle Pettit goal before Christian Fischer tied it up just 21 seconds later.

Fischer says despite the tough loss, he thinks this year's version of the Spits played well as a unit.

"I was actually happy with the way we played and I think the team was too," says Fischer.  "There were a lot of good things to take out of this game and it could have gone either way."

Kyle Maksimovich gave the Otters a 2-1 lead in the second period but the scoring seesaw continued with Latour's goal with 34 seconds left in that period.  Anthony Stefano gave the Spits their first lead of the night just over two minutes into the third period with his first goal of the season, but overtime would be forced with Taylor Raddysh's lamplighter with just 1:15 left in regulation.  It would be Taylor's older brother Darren that scored the winner for Erie in overtime.

The Spits travel to Sault Ste. Marie Friday night to take on the Greyhounds, but Thompson says they have a plan to deal with the quick turnaround.

"We're going to get some reinforcements with Logan Brown and Luke Kirwan," says Thompson.  "I know we'll be seeing them early tomorrow and they'll be able to get a little bit of rest.  We'll change our lineup a little bit which will be good, and we'll maybe be able to roster a full 20 skaters which will be the first time we'll be able to do that so far this year."

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