The Windsor Spitfires aren’t making their playoff push easy on themselves. As they try to grab the eighth seed in the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Western Conference, a loss on Thursday night against their divisional rivals, the Sarnia Sting, makes life that much harder.
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After winning back-to-back conference regular season titles, the club had modest expectations this season. Home ice would have been a nice target, but they won just four of their first 21 games, which made even the playoffs look difficult. However, they’ve never given up and came into this weekend nine points back of the Flint Firebirds for the final spot. Unfortunately, they were also five points back of the ninth-seeded Sting, which made Thursday night’s 4-2 loss even tougher to swallow. Here are three takeaways from a rough night at the WFCU Centre.
Spitfires’ Loss was Self-Inflicted
The Spitfires started well as they managed to earn a tie after the first period. While they had penalty troubles late in the frame, they killed off a lengthy 5-on-3 disadvantage, which should have created momentum heading into the second. It didn’t happen, though.
The Sting came into the second prepared for battle, scoring three times in the frame and out-shooting the Spitfires 14-4. They used breakaways and open players to break down a soft defence. The home side had no answers, and it was 3-1 after 40 minutes. The Spitfires reversed the shots in the third period, but it was too late, and the visitors took a 4-2 win.
After the game, the Spitfires veteran defenceman Anthony Cristoforo said they had mental breakdowns that cost them, and the wounds were self-inflicted.
“We gave them everything they got,” he said. “(On) two goals, we gave them breakaways and one goal was a defensive zone lap by us. It was just all self-inflicted wounds. That one hurts because we feel we came out and played a pretty good game. Little brain errors and they end up in our net.”
Spitfires’ interim head coach Casey Torres seconded Cristoforo’s “self-inflicted” comments. He said the coaching staff also has to be accountable and communicate to the players where the opponents are on the ice.
“We twice gave up breakaways and maybe a lack of awareness and that’s something we’ve got to be sharper on,” he said. “Maybe as a coaching staff, we have to take it on our shoulders more to make sure guys are aware … If we break it down that much more, we’ll take ownership on ourselves to make sure we’re not giving up breakaways.”
Power Play Needs To Find a Way
When you’re in a rebuild, or a “reshuffle”, as Spitfires’ general manager Bill Bowler called it after the trade deadline, you’re not going to dominate teams for 60 minutes. This is where your power play has to step up.
Over the last two seasons, under Marc Savard as their head coach, the club converted at 25.9 percent (2022-23) and 26.1 percent (2021-22). Coming into the game, they were about 18 percent, including seven-for-36 (19.4 percent) in January and 16-for-77 (20.7 percent) since Torres took over in late November. Unfortunately, they’ve had multiple two-goal performances but many more times where the power play has done little, including Thursday.
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While they scored once with the man advantage against the Sting, they didn’t look comfortable together, and seemingly simple plays weren’t being made. Torres said they’ve been working on improving both their penalty kill (second last in the league at 76.1 percent) and their power play. However, despite the club showing some real guts and killing off all five Sting advantages, their own man advantages had issues.
“There’s been a massive focus on special teams,” Torres said. “I don’t think our power play was very good tonight. I thought our execution and passing were very sloppy. I know we got a goal on it and we did have a couple of good instances in the third period, so we can build upon that. But, we need to drastically improve our execution level on the power play.”
The Spitfires went two-for-five on the power play in an 11-7 win against the Sudbury Wolves on Sat., Jan. 13. Since then, they’re just three-for-26. You won’t win many games if you can’t take advantage of those opportunities.
Spitfires’ Defence Needs to Help Goaltending
Thursday’s game marked the 10th game in their last 11, where the Spitfires allowed at least four goals. It’s the same defence and goaltending issues the club saw when they allowed 125 goals in their first 21 games.
While Bowler added veteran defenceman Djibril Toure from the Sudbury Wolves, plus improved their goaltending with Windsor-native Max Donoso from the Ottawa 67’s, there are still concerns. Thursday saw soft defence, while Donoso allowed a couple that he probably wants back. After the game, Torres said they have to be more urgent and physical in their own end.
“I thought we were just too content to just sit around and not have enough urgency to close and force stops and be hard,” he said. “When we were at our best, like last Saturday (8-2 win over Peterborough Petes), we’re adding a bit of physicality to our game and playing with more urgency. I saw that a little bit in the third period but, in our defensive zone play, we were still a little too content to contain and not force stops.”
The club currently has Donoso, 20, along with 18-year-old Joey Costanzo, battling for crease time. While Donoso had a career 2.99 goals-against average (GAA) and .899 save percentage (SV%) when he joined the Spitfires, he has a 4.96 GAA and .865 SV% since arriving. Costanzo isn’t much better with a 5.01 GAA and .851 SV%.
Donoso allowed four goals on 29 shots on Thursday, and part of that was his defensive partners. He (and Costanzo) can only do so much in the crease. While there’s clearly room for improvement, help is still needed. After the game, Torres said the coaches wanted to see one take control. For now, though, playing time will be “play it by ear.”
What’s Next for Spitfires?
With the loss, the Spitfires are still nine points back of the Firebirds for eighth but now seven points back of the Sting for ninth with 22 games left. It will be a tough road to navigate unless they play a full 60 minutes.
They’re also now 1-3-1 against the Sting on the season, getting outscored 29-16. What might be the most frustrating for Torres’ club is how they’ve lost. Of the five games, they’ve had a pair of two-goal losses, a one-goal loss, and a game where they were up 2-1 heading into the third only to lose 6-3. Aside from an 8-2 thumping in the season opener in Sarnia, they’ve been in every game but can’t find a way to earn the two points.
The Spitfires don’t have much time to figure it out, either. They’ll get two days of practice before heading up to Sarnia on Sunday for an evening regular season finale with the Sting. While it’s very early February, we’re starting to get into “must-win” territory if they want to get into the playoffs.