The Windsor Spitfires defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 7-1 in the Mastercard Memorial Cup at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, Ontario on Sunday night.
The Thunderbirds, WHL champions, dropped to 0-2 in the round-robin tournament and need a win against the Saint John Sea Dogs to keep their Memorial Cup hopes alive. Face-off is 4 p.m. Tuesday at the WFCU Centre.
The Sea Dogs (0-1) play the Erie Otters (1-0) at 7 p.m. Monday.
Windsor, 2-0 in the tournament, play the Otters at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Windsor took a 3-0 lead with three goals in 38 seconds early in the first period. Graham Knott scored at 4:48, Julius Nattinen at 5:09 and Logan Brown at 5:26.
Rylan Toth replaced Carl Stankowski in net after the Spitfires’ third goal. Stankowski had three saves on six shots.
The T-Birds got on the board at 13:34 of the second period. Mathew Barzal passed the puck to Turner Ottenbreit the left point. Ottenbreit took a slap shot that Windsor goalie Michael DiPietro stopped. Keegan Kolesar was in front of the goalie and banged in the rebound.
The Spitfires took the three-goal lead back when Nattinen scored a power-play goal at 18:24 of the second.
Knott scored a power-play goal 33 seconds into the third period and Jeremiah Addison scored at 3:46 to make it a 6-1 Windsor lead.
Jeremy Bracco scored at 13:07 of the third to get Windsor’s seventh goal.
Toth made 18 saves on 22 shots.
DiPietro made 24 saves on 25 shot for Windsor.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period – 1, Windsor, Knott 1 (Brown), 4:48. 2, Windsor, Nattinen 1 (Vilardi), 5:09. 3, Windsor, Brown 1, 5:26. Penalties – Eansor, Sea (high-sticking), 7:45. Chatfield, Wsr (kneeing), 17:33.
Second period – 4, Seattle, Kolesar 1 (Ottenbreit, Barzal), 13:34. 5, Windsor, Nattinen 2 (Addison), 18:24 (pp). Penalties – Addison, Win (boarding), :20. True, Sea (high-sticking), 4:44. Nattinen, Wsr (high-sticking), 7:29. Laishram, Wsr (hooking), 8:14. Tyszka, Sea (high-sticking), 13:59. Barzal, Sea (delay of game), 16:42.
Third period – 6, Windsor, Knott 2 (Bracco, Brown), :33 (pp). 7, Windsor, Addison (Luchuk, Day), 3:48. 8, Windsor, Bracco 2 (Knott), 13:07. Penalties – Ottenbreit, Sea (interference), :09. Andrusiak, Sea (slashing), 16:16. Nother, Wsr (10-minute misconduct), 19:42. Andrusiak, Sea (10-minute misconduct), 19:42.
Shots on goal – Seattle 3-13-9 25, Windsor 11-10-7 28. Goalies – Seattle, Stankowski 6 shots-3 saves (0-2), Toth 22-18; Windsor, DiPierto 25-24 (2-0). Power plays – Seattle 0-4; Windsor 2-6. A – 5,237. Referees – Darcy Burchell, Steve Papp. Linesmen – Adam Harris, Justin Knaggs.
