The Saginaw Spirit had a busy week this week (Feb. 24-March 2), hitting the road for three games. They came out of the week with five of six possible points and wrapped up a playoff spot for the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) playoffs. The week also saw some players reach career milestones, and their penalty kill got plenty of work.
Game Results
Feb. 27 @ Barrie Colts: 5-4 OTL
Feb. 28 @ Sudbury Wolves: 7-2 W
March 2 @ North Bay Battalion: 8-3 W
Misa and Parekh Continue to Re-Write the History Books
The Spirit have two players on their roster who continue etching their names in franchise history and the OHL’s history. Michael Misa and Zayne Parekh have been in the organization together for the last three seasons and have played significant roles in their success, including winning the 2024 Memorial Cup. Their play this season has been nothing short of superb. Misa has continued to prove why he was given exceptional status ahead of the 2022-23 season and has been on a torrid pace in his draft-year season. This culminated over the last two weeks, with Misa overtaking Cole Perfetti for most points in a single season in Spirit franchise history when he assisted on a second-period goal against the Guelph Storm on Feb. 22.
Related: 2025 NHL Draft Rankings – Horn’s Top 64 for December
He then set the franchise record for most career points on his second-period goal against the Sudbury Wolves on Feb. 28. He currently sits at 251 career points in the OHL. He also has the longest current point streak in the OHL, sitting at 26 games, where he has tallied 59 points in that span. The point streak is the second longest of the season league-wide, sitting behind Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospect and London Knight, Easton Cowan (29-game point streak). On the three-game road trip, Misa tallied three goals and four assists for seven total points for the Spirit.
On the back end of the ice, the Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL) reigning Defenceman of the Year, Parekh, has thrown himself right into the mix of going back-to-back with his play this season. On the road trip, he led all Spirit players in points with 10 (two goals, eight assists) and could very well be on his way towards winning his third straight OHL Defenceman of the Month. His strong play was clearly on display throughout the week and has shown that as the season has progressed, he is becoming more sound defensively after being known as a massive offensive threat. The Calgary Flames’ 2024 first-round pick finds himself tied for fifth all-time in Spirit history, points-wise, and could easily find himself in the top three by the end of the season. With his third-period goal against North Bay, Parekh became the first OHL defenceman in modern history (since 1980) to have multiple 30-goal seasons.
With Misa and Parekh playing at the top of their respective games, along with San Jose Sharks’ prospect Igor Chernyshov (six points on the week) and Lake Superior State University commit Calem Mangone (eight points on the week) leading the way offensively, the Spirit will be a team that not very many will want to face when it comes playoff time in the coming weeks.
Penalty Kill Gets Plenty of Work
One area where the Spirit have struggled throughout the season is staying out of the penalty box. This continued once again in the three games they played this last week, as they went to the penalty kill 17 times. While not all 17 were full two-minute kills, taking this many penalties will eventually catch up to them at some point. It has not yet, as the team killed off 15 of the 17 they were tasked with. After their game on March 2, the Spirit lead the OHL in penalty minutes with 925 and are the only team to be over 900 minutes on the season. On the flip side, they have the seventh-best penalty kill in the league, sitting at 80.4%.
While they have proven to be successful on the penalty kill, this week does show, to a certain extent, that they need to clean things up a bit to avoid shorthanded situations, especially with the playoffs just around the corner.
Papineau Comes Up Big in Net
Andrew Oke has carried the load for the Spirit in between the pipes for most of the season, but Kaleb Papineau has served admirably when called upon by head coach Chris Lazary. He did that again this last week, playing in the final two games against Sudbury and North Bay. The big, 6-foot-2 netminder stood tall for his team in his two wins on the road trip, stopping 62 of the 67 shots he faced. Numerous times, he made massive saves to help preserve a lead for his team. While the score sheet shows that the Spirit offense did their job, Papineau did his job at a high level. This included making a season-high 35 saves on 37 shots against Sudbury on Feb. 28.
After seeing Nolan Lalonde and Oke create a strong duo last season en route to their Memorial Cup win, seeing Papineau begin to pick his game up and spell Oke when he is asked to should bode well for the Spirit heading towards the playoffs. Oke will certainly be the number one guy in the playoffs, but if injury or illness were to rear its head, having a confident and strong backup in Papineau will be a big impact if the team wants to make a push towards their second straight OHL Western Conference Final appearance.
Other Notes
- Oke joined Mangone as a future Lake Superior State University Laker, committing to the school on Feb. 27.
- The Spirit saw ten players record multiple points over the three games they played during the week.
- While the penalty kill did its job, the power play struggled a bit, only cashing in on four of the 13 chances it had. The unit still ranks second-best in the OHL at 26.6%.
What’s on Tap for the Spirit
The Spirit will finish their road trip this week against in-state rival the Flint Firebirds on March 5 before returning home for two games over the weekend against the Barrie Colts (March 6) and the Brantford Bulldogs (March 8).
