WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Windsor Punches Ticket To Brandon

Published on May 5, 2010 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Windsor, Ontario -- The Windsor Spitfires have won the Robertson Cup as OHL Champions for the second straight season with a four game sweep of the Barrie Colts in the Rogers OHL Championship Series.

Taylor Hall and Cam Fowler scored two goals each to pace the Spitfires to a 6-2 win on Tuesday to complete the series and give the Spitfires their second straight berth in the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

"We came into this series hockey ready and I think they were a little bit rusty," Hall said. "I think that worked to our advantage."

The Spitfires won the tournament last year in Rimouski, QC and will open this year's tournament in Brandon, Manitoba against the host Wheat Kings next Friday to open the 11-day Championship. Windsor enters the Championship having won eight straight OHL playoff games.

"We have some guys on our team that are a little bit banged up," Hall said. "That (break) is going to work to our advantage and hopefully we can take advantage of it in Brandon."

Luke Pither opened the scoring for the Colts on a powerplay in the first period but Fowler responded in the final minute of the opening frame.

Hall, Fowler and Adam Henrique all scored in the second period and then Scott Timmins - who won the Robertson Cup for the third time in a row - and Hall rounded out the scoring in the third period.

Ryan Ellis had three assists and Philipp Grubauer made 32 saves in the win.

"It's unbelievable," Henrique said. "We wanted to do it for the fans here. We knew we had a great opportunity to win it at home tonight. It's a great thing that we were able to do it at home."

Matt Kennedy also scored for the Colts and Peter Di Salvo allowed five goals on 38 shots in the loss.

It was the Spitfires' eighth straight win after losing the first three games of the Rogers Western Conference Championship Series against the Kitchener Rangers.

"I don't know if we learned a lesson from that but I do know we showed our true colours again - our perseverance and our character in that dressing room," said Spitfires' coach Bob Boughner. "We had to bring everything we had in that series and we did. I think that helped us in this series for sure."

Henrique won the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award as the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs as selected by the media covering the OHL Championship Series.

"It's a great feeling," Henrique said. "I just want to come out every night and play hard and do what I can to help the team win. Everybody pulled together throughout the playoffs when we were down or up. We stuck together no matter what and that's what got us here. It was a team effort."

Meanwhile in the Western Hockey League Championship Final, the Calgary Hitmen beat Tri-City 4-1 to take a commanding 3-0 lead in that best of seven series.

The 2010 Memorial Cup Host Wheat Kings lost out to the Hitmen four games to one in this year's Eastern Conference Final.

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Western Hockey League Stories from May 5, 2010


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