A late push by the Spitfires wasn't enough to snap a losing-streak that has now hit five-games — falling 4-3 to Niagara in OHL action at the WFCU Centre Sunday.
Cole Purboo's short-handed goal got the Spitfires out to an early lead in the first-period, but the second period belonged to the Ice Dogs. Unanswered goals from Bradey Johnson and Jason Robertson sent Niagara into the dressing room with a 2-1 lead.
Curtis Douglas tied things up 2-2 mid-way through the third, but he says line-mates Jean-Luc Foudy and Will Cuylle did all the work.
"Came over the blue-line, Cullye made a great pass to the side and Foudy made an amazing play to come around, all I had to do is tap it in," he says.
Oliver Castleman restored the lead for the Ice Dogs minutes later and Philip Tomasino pushed the lead to 4-2 with just 30-seconds left in the game.
Daniel D'Amico's 20th of the year pulled Windsor within one with 10-seconds left with goaltender Colton Incze watching from the bench but that's as close as they would get in the 4-3 loss.
Douglas says a losing streak isn't too farfetched when the bulk of the losses come at the hands of division leaders.
"Back-to-back London [Knights] and Niagara is tough weekend for a team ... we haven't been struggling but any team that's facing those two teams is going to have a tough time," says Douglas. "We showed a lot of resiliency in tonight's game."
Head Coach Trevor Letowski tells AM800 News playing well doesn't always result in a win.
"We obviously desperately needed a win and didn't get it, but, in the big picture that's a pretty high-powered team. We keep them to 25-shots, I mean, that's a pretty well executed game," he says.
Letowski says — with Windsor clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference — the team can build off Sunday's game.
"We've got 19 games left, lots of time where it's going to get interesting. There's a few teams right around us and every game matters," says Letowski. "I think this is a good building-block game for the rest of the season."
Windsor looks to snap its losing skid in North Bay against the Battalion Thursday night — puck drops at 7pm.
Tune into AM800 for all the action.