OHL Windsor Spitfires

Spits Win 5-4 OT Thriller in Saginaw

March 19, 2011 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Windsor Spitfires News Release


Saginaw, MI - With less than one minute left in tonight's contest, things were looking bleak for the Spits and it seemed as though home ice advantage for the playoffs would be lost. That was until Kuhnhackl's heroics set the stage for a wild finish.

Tom Kuhnhackl scored a game tying goal on a blast that went through the net with 57 seconds left in the third period to secure a 4-4 regulation tie for the Spits and home ice advantage against Erie in the first round of the 2011 OHL playoffs. Ryan Ellis took it one step further and scored the game winner to provide Windsor with an improbable, 5-4 come from behind overtime win against the Saginaw Spirit at the Dow Event Center.

In a see-saw battle, with the Spitfires missing Nick Ebert and Saverio Posa on the back end due to injury, Adrian Robertson opened the scoring for Windsor on the power play at 10:57 of the opening frame. Spirit defenceman Ben Chiarot responded for the Spirit seven minutes later and both teams headed to the dressing room tied at one apiece after 20 minutes of play.

After a couple of ill advised penalties by the Spits, Saginaw took a 2-1 lead at the 7:35 of the second period, with Ryan O'Connor scoring a power play marker to make it 2-1 for the Spirit. Spitfires' assistant captains Kenny Ryan and Stephen Johnston regained the lead for Windsor, scoring power play goals less than two minutes apart to give Windsor the 3-2 edge after two periods of play.

With momentum shifting in Windsor's favour, Spirit defenceman and LaSalle native Dalton Prout scored his ninth of the season at 4:51 of the final frame to tie the game at 3-3. The fourth lead change of the game would come courtesy of Spirit forward Ivan Telegin's 20th marker of the season, a power play goal scored at 6:28 to make it 4-3.

Both goaltenders held strong for the rest of the third period with Jack Campbell and Spirit netminder Jack Paterson going save for save. This set the stage for Kuhnhackl's dramatic goal to tie the game in regulation before Ryan Ellis scored the game winner on a two-man advantage in overtime to make it a 5-4 final for Windsor.

Ellis' goal earned him his 100th point of the season and he became only the second defenceman in team history alongside Joel Quenneville (103 points in 1977-78) to score 100 points. He also became the 23rd player in Spitfires history to reach the 100 point plateau.

Entering tonight's game, Windsor and Erie were tied for fourth in the Western Conference standings at 82 points apiece. Windsor needed to earn at least one point in tonight's game to move out of the #5 seed and past Erie in the standings, and the Spitfires victory catapulted them to the Western Conference's #4 seed.

Check out the Windsor Spitfires Statistics



Ontario Hockey League Stories from March 19, 2011


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