Spitfires Rise High In 7-4 Win
Sunday October 6th, 2013, 9:02pm
Hello time traveller!!
This article is 4024 days old.
The information listed below is likely outdated and has been preserved for archival purposes.
A stunning spectacle by the Spitfires’ stars carried the team to victory. The line of Kerby Rychel, Josh Ho-Sang and Nikita Yazkov recorded ten points as a collective. Along with them, Dalen Kuchmey continued to shine, earning his third win in three starts. Windsor battled and beat the Niagara IceDogs 7-4 Sunday afternoon on home ice, at the WFCU Centre.
The Spitfires have now won three straight at home.
Though Windsor finished proudly, the team ran into trouble early in the game. On an IceDogs rush, the puck trickled toward Dalen Kuchmey. He wasn’t able to cover it up, and Carter Verhaeghe poked it over the downed goaltender. Niagara scored the game’s first goal and went up 1-0.
Windsor countered before the halfway mark of the period. Kerby Rychel threw a cross-ice pass to Eric Diodati. The young Spitfire fired a soft slap-shot at the boards. The puck bounced out front and deflected off a Niagara player, into the net.
The Spitfires then took the lead on the power-play. Rychel circled along the blue line. His pass to Ho-Sang was received with a one-touch feed to Remy Giftopoulos. All by himself, out front, he beat goalie Brent Moran.
Niagara, however, quickly tied things up. Blake Siebenaler picked up a loose puck near the top of the circle. His wrist shot made it past Kuchmey to tie the game at two.
Ho-Sang and company wouldn’t let the momentum shift though. With 20 seconds remaining in the high-scoring first period, Trevor Murphy found Ho-Sang flying through centre ice. On a short breakaway, the Niagara defenseman had dropped his stick while trying to catch the speedy forward. The loose stick ended up knocking the puck off of Ho-Sang’s own, and bounced between Moran’s legs.
The opening frame concluded with Windsor leading 3-2, despite being outshot 14-7.
Josh Ho-Sang, who ended the scoring in the first period, started it in the second. He scored his fourth goal of the season with a textbook 2-on-1. A pass to Rychel was returned for the perfectly executed play, as well as the two-goal advantage.
The IceDogs cut the lead to one once more five minutes later on an odd goal. To Kuchmey’s right, off the faceoff, Mitchell Fitzmorris swatted the puck toward the net. It deflected off the glove, up over Kuchmey, and across the line.
Down by just one, Niagara pressed for the tying goal. And they got it. Branden Perlini slipped between the defenders and put a shot on net. The original save was made, but Mack Lemmon followed close behind to score on the rebound.
In response, the Spitfires turned up the heat and fired away toward Moran. They scored three unanswered goals. First, the playmaking Nikita Yazkov shuffled a pass to Nick Ebert. He threw the puck quickly to Rychel as he came in to tap it in.
Next, Brady Vail took his shot at beating Moran. His wicked wrist shot did just that as the Spits went up by two.
Slater Koekkoek completed the onslaught after his attempted pass hit a Niagara defender’s skate and went over the goalie.
Windsor greatly cycled the puck late in the third period, killing over four consecutive minutes. With time winding down, a fight ensued between Patrick Sanvido and Sam Berg. Sanvido came out on top after his one-punch knocked Berg to the ice, to the cheers of the 4867 fans in attendance. The fight was the icing on the cake as the Spitfires skated away with a third straight home victory, winning 7-4 against the Niagara IceDogs.
Scary Situation
Once the scoring was finalized, the IceDogs were put through a bit of a panic. Slater Koekkoek let a powerful slap-shot go from the circle. The shot caught Brent Moran high, in the mask, and rocked him immediately. At first, Moran got up, although slow. Unfortunately, he was sat back down by trainers as medical personnel headed onto the ice with a stretcher. He was being examined at the net before being escorted off (on his own power).
Moran later sent out a twitter update:
Windsor is back in action this coming Thursday, October 10th against the Belleville Bulls.