Michael DiPietro turned away all but one of the shots hit his way by the Saginaw Spirit as the Windsor Spitfires broke the Saginaw Spirit 7-1 Thursday night at the WFCU Centre.
DiPietro stopped 28 of 29 Saginaw shots while Patrick Sanvido and Logan Brown each had three assists for the Spitfires, who took their first victory at home this season.
DiPietro says this has been a group effort from the opening faceoff.
"I thought we played really well, came out fast and hard," says DiPietro, who has allowed just three goals in two starts for the Spits so far this year. "We kept that pressure up during the game and we followed our systems and we got the win."
The Spitfires got two in the first period off goals from Gabriel Vilardi and Christiano DiGiacinto, the first goals of the year for both players.
Vilardi says his goal came about almost by accident.
"I thought I had more time, to be honest," says Vilardi. "But then the guy caught up to me and then I ended up losing the puck, actually I think, and then I got the back hand and it went in, so it was good."
The Spirit got on the board just over two minutes into the second period with Jesse Barwell's first goal of the year, but Luke Kirwan and Anthony Stefano would respond later in the period with goals to make it a 4-1 Windsor lead after 40 minutes. Bradley Latour and Aaron Luchuk would contribute to the onslaught before Jalen Chatfield scored on the power play with 11 seconds left in the game.
The Spitfires travel to London Friday night for their first game of the year with the rival Knights.
Despite London having just three points on the season so far, Spitfires Head Coach Rocky Thompson is taking the Knights seriously.
"They're a great team, it's always a tough building to go in with their fans," says Thompson. "It's a Friday night, it's going to be an outstanding atmosphere. I think our guys are really excited about it."
The Spitfires' next home game is next Thursday night when the Peterborough Petes come to the WFCU Centre.
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