Prepare For Takeoff – Spitfires Weekend Preview

Thursday, January 26 – vs Saginaw Spirit

Points are always important, but when you have the chance to separate yourself from a team nipping at your heels, they are more precious than gold.

That’s the situation the Windsor Spitfires find themselves in tonight when they welcome the Saginaw Spirit to the WFCU Centre.

Windsor (21-22-3-1 – 46 pts) has only a one point advantage over Saginaw (20-21-0-5 – 45 pts) for 6^th place in the OHL’s Western Conference Final, with around 20 games to go in the regular season.

Saginaw is 2-1 against the Spitfires this season, but will be bringing a very different team to town, after making 3 different trades at the Deadline on January 10^th.

Former Spitfires Eric Locke and Grant Webermin will be back in town, wearing Spirit jerseys. Locke has 10 points (4-6) in his 9 games with Saginaw, while Webermin is a +1 in 3 games.

WHO TO WATCH:

WINDSOR: Kerby Rychel leads the team with 26 goals and has 3 against the Spirit in 3 games this season, along with two assists. Alexander Khokhlachev has 4 assists. Chris Marchese has two goals in two games against Saginaw as a member of the Spitfires.

SAGINAW: Josh Shalla has two goals against the Spitfires this season, while Michael Fine has registered 4 assists. Goaltender, Jake Paterson is 1-1 facing Windsor, with a 0.939 save percentage.

 

Friday, January 27 - @ London Knights

One of the more stories rivalries in the Western Conference gets sparked up again at the John Labatt Centre, as the Spitfires travel to face the best team in the OHL and the top ranked team in the CHL – the London Knights (35-10-0-1 – 71 pts).

This is just the 3^rd meeting between these two clubs, with three others scheduled before the end of the year.

The season series has been split 1-1 so far, with both road teams winning – Windsor 5-2 on October 7^th and London 6-3 on October 23^rd.

WHO TO WATCH:

WINDSOR: Michael Clarke has his coming out party on October 7^th, when he potted his first OHL hat-trick and added an assist. Nick Czinder, Zack McQueen and Kerby Rychel are the only other current Spitfires to score in this two game season series. Former goaltender, Jack Campbell started both previous games.

LONDON: In their 6-3 win on October 23^rd, Vladislav Namestnikov had a two goal/one assist performance, while Jake Fox kicked in a goal and an assist. Goaltender, Michael Houser is 1-1 against Windsor this season, with a 0.896 save percentage.