Ottawa takes Windsor – 5 – 2

Hello again. Here’s your summary for tonight’s game (yes – tonight’s game).

The Spitfires came to town to start their trip to Eastern Ontario. They played Ottawa tonight, play Belleville tomorrow, Kingston on Sunday and then head down the 401 back to Windsor. By any account, that’s a long trip.

While the Spitfires have had a tough start to the season, they’re doing OK; perhaps better than expected. Coming into tonight’s game they were only 1 point out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. This was also a bit of a homecoming for their goalie Anthony Guadagnolo. He was traded to Windsor after he left the 67s earlier this season demanding to be traded. Well grasshopper, your master welcomes you.

Well, let’s hope the rest of their trip is more productive for them than tonight.

First Period: Started with a bang as Voyta took an early hit and found that his stick flew over the glass into the visitor’s penalty box. Windsor got into penalty trouble early and often in this period – a total of 5 penalties leaving them shorthanded for at least 10 minutes, with a brief period of being down two players (which they survived with help from the cross bar). But before they got too deep into the penalty parade, they got on the score card first with a goal when Brett Liscomb took a pass in front of the crease at 8:27 into the period. Ryan Garlock and Cory McGillis assisted on the goal. At the 11:27 mark, Matt Lahey fired one in from the left face-off circle to even it up on the power play. Assists were credited to Brody Beard and Elgin Reid. In the last minute of play for the first period, Ottawa got the go-ahead on a power play goal when Brody Beard fired it from the point and Bryan Bickell deflected it past Guadagnolo. Ottawa only had one penalty for the period. Shots on goal: 12 – 5 for Ottawa which really isn’t a lot considering how much time Windsor played short handed. Stars for the first period: the posts and cross bars at both ends of the ice.

Second Period: Hey – Bryan can pass the puck! We barely finished cheering our team back onto the ice when bingo bango Chris Hulit scored from the face-off circle off a pass from Bryan Bickell. Jakob Vojta also earned an assist on the play before the first minute of the period was even over. Then it was Ottawa’s turn to go feel shame in the penalty box with 5 penalties for the period. Ottawa did a pretty good job of killing the penalties, at one point being down two players for 33 seconds. Danny did a fine job of making some awesome saves and the defense cleared the puck out of their own end. Yay!

I didn’t see the build up but Shea Kewin and Colin Cawardine (what an unfortunate name for a hockey player - might as we call him Sue) dropped the gloves to have a set-to about 5 minutes into the period. The whole thing was over pretty much before it started when Shea ended up on top of Colin. I don’t know if Colin fell or if Shea dropped him but the crowd determined that Shea got the better end of the deal.

With 3.4 seconds left to play in the period, Windsor got back into the game by knocking the puck out of the air past Danny right beside the net. The ref was right on top of it and denied Ottawa’s protests that it was hit in with a high stick.

At the end of the second period, Ottawa still lead 3 – 2; shots on goal were 15 – 22 for Windsor.

Third Period: Both teams went the first half of the period with only one penalty each. Then the teams earned 3 (Windsor) and 4 (Ottawa) trips to the penalty box including Guadagnolo getting a penalty for slashing his former team mate Pat Ouelette. Pat also earned a slashing penalty on the play. Ottawa kept Windsor scoreless for the period while scoring two power play goals of their own. Brody Beard scored the first one from the point just as one of the Windsor penalties expired. Half the arena was yelling at him to SHOOT! Don’t know if the guys actually hear any of this stuff but it makes us feel useful. Jamie McGinn and Logan Couture assisted on the goal. Elgin Reed scored the final goal of the game with a shot from the slot. Pat Ouellette and Chris Hulit helped out.

Final score: Ottawa 5 Windsor 2
Final shots on goal: 23 – 32 for Windsor.

Thoughts on the Game: Ya know, although Ottawa came out on the good side of the score, I can’t say that this was an inspiring game.

On the upside, Danny made some outstanding saves, there were some good hits (and brave ones – Pat Daley tried to take Brian Soso on the boards – no contest!), and some great offensive and defensive plays (pretty decent penalty kills considering Windsor went 0/8). That Logan Couture is one tough kid – he works hard, pesters the opposition in their own zone and gets banged around quite a bit. He just gets up and keeps on keeping on. Julian Talbot was also all over the place too digging for the puck, pressing for the turnover, threatening on the penalty kills.

But overall I think Ottawa was outplayed and Windsor was outlucked. They (Windsor) had some great opportunities that they just couldn’t close on. We saw the promise when Ottawa beat Peterborough last Sunday; tonight’s performance, by both teams, was relatively lackluster in my opinion.

But we’ll take the two points – there’s no picture on the score card and we’ll hope that Windsor gets some spark back to take on our divisional counterparts.

Three Stars: #1 – Brody Beard (goal and two assists)
#2 – Danny Battochio (30 saves)
#3 – Elgin Reed

Cheers and good night!