The Windsor Spitfires stay perfect to start the season after shutting out the visiting Guelph Storm 4-0.
Captain Aaron Luchuk had a goal and an assist while Michael DiPietro made 30 saves to earn the shutout — good enough to be named the game's 1st star.
Defenceman Austin McEneny was named the game's 2nd star after notching two assists, three shots and a +1 in the game and Jake Smith earned 3rd star honours finishing with two assists. Matthew MacDougall, Luke Kutkevicius and Igor Larionov had the other goals.
The Spitfires have relied on special teams to win all of its first three games to start the new OHL season.
Through three games Windsor's power play is ranked 2nd in the league with a 40% efficiency while its penalty kill is tied for 1st in the league having kept the puck out of the net in all 17 kills.
Head Coach Trevor Letowski says the team pays special attention to what it has to do both with a man up and a man down.
"It's often times the difference between winning and losing in our league, we knew that in any year, and then when you have a young team we really need that to be good, so we work on it a lot with the structure of both units," says Letowksi.
Windsor Spitfires Associate Coach, Trevor Letowski (Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images)
The new head coach — previously servicing as associate coach — feels his team this year is building off of what the Spitfires were able to achieve last year with its special teams.
"From last year we had a really good year and there are guys returning that were key guys — in particular [Aaron] Luchuk and [Luke] Boka — and they take a lot of pride in it."
Windsor went 1-for-3 on the power play against Guelph and Letowski points to some key players for its success.
"When you have good, skilled players — guys that can shoot the puck like [Aaron] Luchuk and [Jake] Smith — on your first unit, we really like [Cole] Purboo in front, there are a lot of dangerous players there, so the power play has been working," says Letowski.
The Windsor Spitfires are next up against the Kitchener Rangers at the WFCU Centre on Thursday in a game that could see the return of former Spitfire, defenceman Logan Stanley.
Puck-drop on Thursday is set for 7:05pm.