Spits Rally Cut Short, Knights Win 4-3

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Against their Western Conference rivals, the Windsor Spitfires play their best. The game didn’t begin in their favour, but the engines were going. The Spitfires rallied from a three-goal deficit –  but Mitchell Marner and the Knights halted the comeback. Marner scored three goals for London to carry them to a 4-3 win over Windsor Saturday night, at the WFCU Centre.

Windsor’s first and second lines were hot with energy within the first couple of minutes of the game. The Spitfires were flying up and down the ice for a good portion of the period. However, the Knights were first to score. Mitchell Marner was the trailer on a London rush and, upon receiving a pass, let a wicked wrist-shot go high into the top of the net. The Spits countered with continuous offense; they were inches away from tying the game when Sam Povorozniouk’s shot rang off the cross-bar. Just like that, though, Marner struck again to put the Knights up by 2. Skating into the Windsor zone, Christian Dvorak slid a short pass up to Matt Rupert. In turn, his well-timed pass found Marner heading to the net to finish off the play. Nifty passing drew goalie Alex Fotinos to one side, and he had no chance in blocking the open side. Despite being down most of the period, the Spits were on fire. They had great chances, including a couple of sweet back-to-back moves by Josh Ho-Sang, all of which were halted by goaltender Tyler Parsons. Windsor outshot London 17-7 in the first, but was down 2-0 after 20 minutes.

In a slight turn of events, the momentum shifted to London early in the second. The Knights began the period on a powerplay and soon dominated the ice. Windsor killed off the double minor and looked to pick up the pace. The Knights wouldn’t have it any of it as they maintained control. With that, it wasn’t long before they went up 3-0. Max Domi sent a marvellous backhand pass through his legs to the front to Chandler Yakimowicz, who snuck in to slap it past Fotinos. Down by 3, the Spitfires needed something. That something came in the form of Chris Marchese. First, he entered the London zone off a pass from Ho-Sang. He circled around the defender before cutting to the net and beating the goalie with a backhand-forehand move. While celebrating, he urged his team on, shouting “Let’s go!” to his teammates. 21 seconds later, the Spits built off the goal, and added another – from Marchese once again. Markus Soberg grabbed the puck behind the net. He threw a pass out to the faceoff circle. Marchese picked it up, spun and fired a shot past Parsons. All of a sudden, it was a one-goal game, and soon to be tied. Less than two minutes later, the arena erupted. Slater Doggett found Trevor Murphy creeping in to the front of the net as Windsor evened the game at 3. It seemed the momentum had shifted back to the Spitfires. That would only last moments because Marner would complete his hat-trick for the Knights. Fotinos made a great stop on the initial play, but the forward found the puck sitting in the crease and pushed it in. after a thrilling second period, Windsor was down 4-3.

Windsor was putting on good pressure against London in the third, but consequently gassing out. A solid period of hockey had both teams playing at a good pace as the Spits looked to tie the game. They had a few chances late on a powerplay when they pulled the goalie. Unfortunately, nothing would come of those opportunities. The Spitfires lost a close one to the Knights Saturday night by a score of 4-3.

Windsor will be back at the WFCU Centre this Thursday, November 6^th to play the Owen Sound Attack at 7:05pm.