Ottawa Takes Windsor On Again...

The second meeting of these two teams this year. They met early in the season and it was a close event - Ottawa was stoned by a very hot goalie.

Windsor is solidly entrenched as the unquestionably best team in the country. To date they still have only lost one game out of 18 played.

Ottawa comes to the game on a two-game winning streak and always able to suprize.

This is also Brian Kilrea's last trip into Windsor as the Coach. Kind of fitting that it will be in the old barn. A warm and brief ceremony acknowledging his contribution to the sport and announcing the Brian Kilrea Teaching Room at CHEO. A great legacy.

Forwards:
Cowick, Couture, Nesbitt
Martindale, Latta, Toffoli
Blunden, Kiriakou, Carnevale
Hanes, Lindsay, Schinkelshoek

D-pairs:
Demers, Ryan
Birkhoff, Paryzek
Hartwick, Zanetti

Goal: Perugini

Scratches: Couchaine (injury), Zamek (injury), Cuma (injury?), Anderson,

Adam Stein in as back-up goali

Face-offs are pretty important but tonight they were also profitable as at least three goals came off the face0f. The first one just 8 seconds into the game which was a record for the Windsor Spitfires. After a pretty fast period where the Spits carried most of the play, they scored two in the last 5 minutes. Here's the game sheet.

Aside from a lapse in the second period that allowed Ottawa back into the game, the Spits showed just why they have held on to first spot overall in Canada - especially in the third period when they owned the first half of the period.

But Ottawa made a game of it starting in the second period and the goals came from a new crew this time. It started with Pieter Schinelshoek getting his first OHL goal when he buried a rebound past Engelage and ruined any thought of a shut-out. Cody Lindsay and Derek Hartwick got the assists. Then Stephen Blunden >pulled Ottawa within 1 when he too he picked off a rebound while going to the net. Logan Couture and Thomas Nesbitt got the assists.

The Spitfires came out hard and fast in the third period and Ottawa's penalties finally caught up with them. Having just finished the tail end of a late second-period penalty, they went right back to the PK when Demers was called for hooking Tayler Hall. The Spits finally made Ottawa pay although there are some who think the play should have been whistled offside at the blueline. Perugini was beat going down early on a wrap-around. Windsor went back up by two.

Ottawa got that one back on a Spits give-away in their own zone. Stephen Blunden got the puck to Carnevale in the slot who fired it past Engelage before he knew what happened.

Then the pace really picked up and Windsor poured it on hard. Perugini made save after save to keep this game in reach. And just as their 6th PP ended, Corey Cowick scored his 15 goal of the season putting the puck into a completely open side. Logan Couture (or kutcher as pronounced by the announcer) and Sean Ryan got the assists to tie up the game with three minutes to play.

OVERTIME!!!
Winsdor put three forwards and a defenseman out to start the OT. It looks like they are trying to go high on Perugini. It's all Windsor. Ottawa didn't get a shot on goal for the first half of the period. Two great scoring chances by the 67s that started with Tyler Toffoli breaking in. Engelage stopped it and then stopped the rebound shot from Martindale. They were definitley gave savers.

The 67s were a man down in the last 45 seconds when Zanetti was called on a good penalty to keep Windsor from scoring. Killer called a timeout with 15 seconds left in the OT period. This gave the Ottawa penaly killers a rest. The Spits had a good chance in the dying seconds but Perugini kept the puck out.

23 - 42 shots on goal for Windsor

To the Shoot-Out!!
Logan Couture - yes
Taylor Hall - yes
Michael Latta - No
Ryan Ellis - No
Thomas Kiriakou - No
Andrei Loktionov - No
Tyler Toffoli - No
Dale Mitchell - Yes

And Windsor takes it 5 -4 in the shoot-out.

The Three Stars in the arena:
1. Taylor Hall
2. Chris Perugini (and well earned!!)
3. Andrew Engelage

I missed the Team1200 selections.

Random Thoughts:

• Windsor is clearly a very strong team. If memory serves me correctly they have 8 NHL drafted players and a couple of other players that are slated to go high in the next draft and the team is older. They should be very strong. But Ottawa certainly gave them a run for their money. It was a good game.
  
• I had heard that Cuma didn't skate the last few minutes of the game on Sunday due to a hip injury but I hadn't heard anything since. It must be somewhat serious to not have resolved itself by now.
  
• That left the 67s with a pretty young blue line with just Demers, Ryan and Paryzek with any experience.
  
• I'm pretty sure that the league supplies pronunciation guides for the media. So why is it that there are so many different ways to pronounce Toffoli or Paryzek? These are not really tough names to pronounce.
  
• Couture's interviews are getting quite good.
• So who do you think came out ahead in the Cowick - Valliquette trade?
  
• Favourite announcer term..."under pressure". Everyone was "under pressure".
  
• During the first intermission, they cut over to the game in Brampton. The rink is almost empty!! According to the game sheet attendance was 2101. How can a team survive like this?
  

Ottawa now hits the road for their game in Saginaw tomorrow.