Growing pains and lessons aren’t supposed to be easy. The Windsor Spitfires took another one on the chin at home Thursday night, letting a lead slip away against a top contender.
Being in last place in the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Western Conference hasn’t been easy for the Spitfires. After back-to-back top seeds in the conference, this season has been a tough rebuild. General manager Bill Bowler brought in youth and picks, looking square into the future. However, they’ve still been competitive on a semi-regular basis and were only seven points out of the playoffs coming into this weekend. Unfortunately, Thursday night didn’t help that cause. Despite building a 4-2 lead, they fell 5-4 to the Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL) sixth-ranked Saginaw Spirit at the WFCU Centre. It was a tough pill to swallow. Here are three takeaways from their disappointing loss.
60-Minute Effort Required for Wins
When you’re an inexperienced team, one of the areas you have to consistently work on is playing a full 60 minutes. Good teams, like the Spirit, will find ways to win regardless of how well they played. The Spitfires don’t have that luxury right now. They’ve been struggling to put together full efforts and, when they don’t, the result is often a loss.
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On Thursday, they managed to keep the Spirit to just 14 shots through two periods while capitalizing on their own offensive chances. They even took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission thanks to goals from Colton Smith, Cole Davis, and Valentin Zhugin. However, it was third period that did them in.
The Spirit got a goal just 57 seconds into the final frame, sucking the air out of the WFCU Centre. While Zhugin added another, the visitors out-shot the Spitfires 20-5 in the period, erased a 4-2 deficit, and escaped with a 5-4 win. After the game, Spitfires’ interim head coach Casey Torres said they played their game in the first 40 minutes but didn’t compete hard enough in the third, giving the Spirit too many chances.
“We were an ‘A’ through two periods,” Torres said. “The disappointing element in the third period was we were in a favourable spot. We knew they were going to press and we knew we had to raise our intensity level. Unfortunately, I don’t think we had enough people doing that early in the third period. After we scored to make it 4-2, we gave up backbreaking goals that can’t go in. You give good teams life, they can burn you with breaks, luck … They pushed back hard in the third and the things that got us the lead, we didn’t do consistently enough in the third period.”
Spitfires Need Colton Smith at His Best
One gift we hoped Santa would bring the Spitfires was more production from the 6-foot-3, 215-pound forward Smith. The son of former Spitfires’ defenceman D.J., Smith had 47 points in 62 games last season but had just 11 points in 42 games this season.
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Fortunately, he’s slowly finding that rhythm again. On Thursday, Smith scored his seventh in the second period, then added an assist on Zhugin’s goal shortly after, to give him his second two-point night in his last five games. It’s a step in the right direction, though he quickly admitted that he, and everyone else, needed to be better in the third period.
“I thought it was pretty good for the first and second,” he said. “In the third period, I gave up two chances that were my fault, luckily they didn’t go in. Again, I have to tighten my game up in the third period just like everyone else.”
Admitting fault is a part of leadership and maturing. Smith turns 20 in early February and, with a younger roster around him, he’s become a bit of a father figure. It’s a role he’s embracing.
“A lot of the younger guys, I try to take care of them,” he said. “Anything they need when they’re around and they bring their family down, I try to go say hi and meet their families. Just so they know that I’m an older guy but I’m here for them … Two years ago, I walked into the OHL like a kid and now I’m here just trying to be a dad to some of these guys like Davis and (rookie Jack) Nesbitt.”
A focused, productive Smith is a huge benefit to the Spitfires. Once they can get that consistently, the team will be that much better for it.
Spitfires’ Glass Half-Full?
There are multiple ways to look at a loss like this. On the scoresheet, you will simply see a 5-4 Spirit win. However, when you look deeper, you see things on a different level.
Last night, a rebuilding Spitfires club took the 2024 Memorial Cup hosts to the brink. Torres’ club played strong hockey through 40 minutes, limiting the opposition to 14 shots, and had a 4-2 lead with 10 minutes left in the game. That can’t be ignored. After the game, Davis said they were right there with the contenders.
“They’re a very good team and obviously built for a long playoff run,” he said. “We were right there with them and it could have gone either way tonight. There’s a lot to learn and we have to find a way to finish that game. Moving on now, Saturday is the Peterborough Petes (at home) and we’re back with (the Spirit on the road) on Sunday.”
Nobody enjoyed the third-period collapse and it shows that there is plenty for this young group to learn. However, competing against an all-in club like the Spirit also shows that the Spitfires are capable of playing with the best in the league. They just need to figure out how to compete for the full 60 minutes, especially if they want to have any shot at the playoffs. There’s no time like this weekend to work on it, either.
