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Opportunity knocked for the Windsor Spitfires on Thursday and the club failed to answer.
The London Knights were down four key players for the contest, but still controlled much of the action in a 6-2 win before a crowd of 4,432 at the WFCU Centre.
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“Every day’s an opportunity,” Spitfires’ forward Ryan Abraham said. “Not many people get to play in the OHL every day, so every day’s an opportunity for every guy in the room, especially (Thursday). It’s a rival team, they’ve got guys missing and we needed to capitalize.”
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The Knights gave leading scorer Denver Barkey the night off after being cut by Team Canada, which kept London teammates Easton Cowan and Oliver Bonk. Kasper Halttunen, who leads the Knights in goals, is with Finland’s world junior team.
“It’s definitely a transition,” Knights’ forward Jacob Julien said. “There’s three very good players headed out to world juniors right now and we’re transitioning nicely. Our younger guys are playing good and we’re just continuing to play our game.”
Julien got the Knights on the board less than five minutes into the game and Landon Sim extended the lead to 2-0 after killing off a Windsor power play that turned into an odd-man rush.
“I just think we maybe took them too lightly with them having four guys out,” Spitfires’ defenceman Roberto Mancini said.
Abraham briefly gave the Spitfires life with a pair of goals 26-seconds apart. The second came on a penalty shot after Isaiah George was whistled for interfering with Abraham from behind.
However, Sim got the Knights back in front for good by the end of the first period. The goal was initially waved off by officials, who thought he had gloved the puck in from the crease. It was reviewed and ruled a good goal.
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“I thought we started off pretty good,” Abraham said. “Second and third period, we kind of laid an egg.”
Ruslan Gazizov set up Sam O’Reilly on a London power play for his fourth assist of the game to make it 4-2 London and chase starting Windsor goalie Ian Michelone after 14 shots.
Henry Brzustewicz pushed the London lead to 5-2 after two periods after capitalizing off a Windsor turnover.
“We got down early, found a way to claw back into the game and let it slip away,” Spitfires’ interim head coach Casey Torres said. “For me, I thought it was too loose, soft, careless with the puck through the neutral zone. That seemed, for me, to create and dictate a lot of our problems.
“They were very quick to take advantage of those turnovers and turn them back on offence. They had four really key players out of the lineup, and you look at the way they competed (Thursday), they probably took pride in trying to step up and win the game. They battled and competed really hard. They won pretty much every stick battle, which is probably disappointing for our group.”
Max McCue added London’s second power-play goal of the game to close the scoring in the third period.
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The Spitfires now hit the road for a Saturday game in Owen Sound against the Attack at 7 p.m. before a 12-day break for Christmas.
jpparker@postmedia.com
twitter.com/winstarparker
Game Summary
Thursday Result
Knights 6 Spitfires 2
London 3 2 1 – 6
Windsor 2 0 0 – 2
First period: 1. London, Julien 11 (Gazizov) 4:12, 2. London, Sim 3 (McCue, Gazizov) 8:39, 3. Windsor, Abraham 7 (Cristoforo) 12:57, 4. Windsor, Abraham 8 (unassisted) 13:23 (ps), 5. London, Sim 4 (Julien, Gazizov) 15:53. Penalties: O’Reilly L (slashing) 5:03, McCue L (tripping) 6:30.
Second period: 6. London, O’Reilly 8 (Gazizov) 7:09 (pp), 7. London, Brzustewicz 2 (Van Gorp) 15:10. Penalties: Toms W (high sticking) 6:45, Boulton L (blindsiding, fighting), Woodall W (instigator, fighting, misconduct) 11:05.
Third period: 8. London, McCue 9 (O’Reilly, Dickinson) 8:50 (pp). Penalties: Morneau W (tripping) 6:54, McCue L (unsportsmanlike conduct), Martin W (unsportsmanlike conduct) 14:07, Van Bommel L (roughing), Nesbitt W (roughing) 18:38, Eichler W (boarding) 19:38.
Game stats – SOG – London 13 7 10 – 30 Windsor 11 6 12 – 29 Goal (shots-saves) – London: Simpson (W,14-7-0-0) (29-27). Windsor: Michelone (L,5-7-1-0) (14-10), Costanzo (7:09 of second period) (16-14). Power play (goals-chances) – London 2-3. Windsor 0-2. Referees: Ryan Elberts (9) and Mac Nichol (33). Linesmen: Andre Grougrou (77) and Kurtis Pare (70). Att.: 4,432 at the WFCU Centre.
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