A rookie goaltender stole the show for the defending OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs as they downed the Windsor Spitfires 5-2 at the WFCU Centre Sunday.
Cole Purboo opened the scoring, deflecting a point-shot from Nathan Staios midway through the first, but a great effort by Hamilton's Liam Van Loon tied things up just minutes later to close out the first frame 1-1.
It was a good day to hang around the crease for Purboo; he deflected another shot from the point, his second of the game and third of the season to make it 2-1 Windsor at the midway point of the second.
Hamilton answered quickly again with a markers from MacKenzie Entwistle and Ben Garagan, who beat Windsor goalie Michael DiPietro with a weak wrist shot to finish the second 3-2.
That would be all the support rookie goaltender Zachary Roy would need, but Hamilton put up two more goals, one into an empty cage, for a 5-2 win.
Roy had to put in some work to earn his first OHL win in his first career start — turning away 41 of the 44 shots he faced.
Purboo tells AM800 News when a team puts that kind of pressure on a goalie, there's not much more it can do.
"We ran into a really hot goalie today but I feel like we did a great job of getting pucks on the net ... it just didn't happen for us today," says Purboo. "I think we just have a good work week and continue with what we're doing because games like that we should win."
Windsor's didn't allow a shot on DiPietro until 10:30 of the first and was outshooting Hamilton 31-13 going into the third. DiPietro stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced as the Spitfires dropped to 3-3 on the season.
Head Coach Trevor Letowski says it was a positive game with a negative result.
"Are guys are doing the right things and I think we're way ahead of where we thought we would be. Generating that many chances, obviously we have to bear down score more, be hungrier and maybe get a little more traffic [in front of the net]," says Letowski. "Tonight, the goaltender just steals it."
The Ottawa 67's host the Spitfires at TD Place on Friday - puck drops at 7:00pm.
Tune into AM800 for all the action.
Oct7_postgame from Windsor Spitfires on Vimeo.