The Windsor Spitfires weren’t going to allow history to repeat itself. In their first home game since the 2024-25 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) trade deadline, the club got their revenge on an Eastern Conference contender on Thursday night.
With the trade deadline wrapping up on Fri., Jan. 10, general manager Bill Bowler has the roster he’s envisioned all season. Now, they have a job to do and that includes proving they can stay near the top of the Western Conference. That also included a big win over the Sudbury Wolves on Thursday at the WFCU Centre, two months after an embarrassing loss on the road in November in their only meeting to date. Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s win.
Spitfires Prove November Loss Was a Fluke
In mid-November, the Spitfires traveled up north to face the Wolves. It started bad and finished worse as the Wolves grabbed a convincing 9-3 win. On Thursday, the clubs met once more this season, this time at the WFCU Centre. It was a near 180-degree turn.
Up north, the Spitfires fell flat early and often and couldn’t recover. However, on Thursday, they got the start they were looking for. Veteran defenceman Tnias Mathurin opened the scoring just 68 seconds in and was followed by forward Ilya Protas’ 30th this season to make it 2-0. While the Wolves cut the lead in half to end the period, the Spitfires didn’t let up. They scored two in the second and another two in the third, wrapping up a definitive 6-2 win. They also outshot the visitors 42-19. Protas led everyone with four points.
The Spitfires knew they had to make a statement. Their last meeting was their most lopsided loss of the season and they knew the only response was pushback. After Thursday’s game, captain Liam Greentree said he was proud of their effort.
“We got kind of embarrassed that game in Sudbury and that’s not something we take lightly,” he said. “I’m trying to get the boys as pumped up as I can before this game because I really wanted to beat these guys because of what they did to us in their rink. I’m really proud of the guys and what we accomplished.”
Spitfires’ head coach Greg Walters added that the leadership group makes his job easier.
“Greentree was the first guy, we owe these guys,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that they saw what we’re all about and they definitely saw that. Our character and leadership group is so strong, it makes my job easy.”
Spitfires Learn to Close Out Game
One of the biggest areas the Spitfires have struggled in, especially over the last month, is finding ways to close out games if they have a significant lead.
Since late December, they’ve had at least three games where they had a multi-goal lead heading into the third period, but gave up multiple goals and had to find a way to get the two points. Each game resulted in a win but that won’t necessarily happen in the playoffs. Walters’ club can score; they lead the OHL with 193 goals in 42 games. However, it’s been closing out games with defensive focus that has lacked. Walters said that he continues to preach the idea of defence leading to offence and Thursday was no different.
“Going back through our last few games, we’ve been a little bit loose,” he said. “Our whole focus was away from the puck and, as we’ve said all season and tried to ingrain into our guys’ heads is defence leads to offence. When we defend as well as we did, we get the puck back quicker and then they can go have some fun in the offensive zone.”
The Windsor #Spitfires opened a 2-0 lead on the Sudbury #Wolves at home on Thursday before cruising to a 6-2 win. #OHL pic.twitter.com/CpawQpwRVI
— Dave Jewell (@DaveJewellOHL) January 17, 2025
On Thursday, they outshot the Wolves 16-6 in the final frame, only allowing Musty to score. They continued to press and found the net twice. Afterwards, Greentree said finding a way to close out games has been a focus.
“The one thing we’ve been struggling with is our third periods and closing games out, but I thought we really turned it up in the third period and played well, finishing the game off. I’m proud of the boys tonight.”
New Spitfires Trio Fitting In
When the Spitfires brought in new players at the deadline, they ran the risk of tinkering with a strong room chemistry. However, the three new faces – defenceman Wyatt Kennedy, plus forwards Shawn Costello and Luke McNamara – have already become family.
Related: Spitfires Boost Defence, Add Kennedy from Battalion
Thursday was a great chance to show their value to the home fans. Kennedy threw multiple big hits, Costello was reliable on the fourth line, and McNamara scored his first as a Spitfire in the third period. After the game, Walters said it’s been a smooth transition.
“Kennedy is everything that we needed,” he said. “(A) right-handed shot with (Carson) Woodall … A ‘right-handed Mathurin’ is what we call him. Costello has been so reliable, tough, plays our structure very well, and does the little things extremely well. McNamara wants to make some plays too much for my liking at this point, instead of chipping pucks, but he’s got a ton of skill, is a big man, and skates extremely well. You saw his skill set there, scored a goal, just have to dial him in a little bit.”
Mathurin played on the North Bay Battalion with Kennedy before being traded to the Spitfires in August. He said the two talked after this trade and Kennedy is the “steady-eddie” the defence needed.
“Just the presence of Kennedy on the backend now, we can really trust the fact that we have help now, and we can keep the puck out of the net,” he said. “He’s the only piece we kind of need here and he really helped in the last runs I had in the previous seasons with the Battalion. I really think he’ll do great here … Kennedy is playing his steady-eddie kind of game.”
The team now hits the road to face the Barrie Colts on Saturday and the Oshawa Generals on Sunday.
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