By Aaron Bell
In Brampton, the Windsor Spitfires are within one win of their second OHL championship after a 4-1 win over the Brampton Battalion in Game 4 of the Rogers OHL Championship Series on Wednesday.
Andrei Loktionov scored two goals and Andrew Engelage made 40 saves for the Spitfires, who lead the series 3-1 and can wrap it up with a win at home on Friday.
“We just found a way to win tonight,” said Spitfires’ coach Bob Boughner. “Everybody was working hard and we stuck with the game plan. It was a big win.”
Engelage was the first star and made several big saves early that kept the game close.
“It’s not too often that we give up quite that many shots,” Engelage said. “It allowed me to get a good groove going into the game. Fortunately I came up with a couple of big saves. That’s what I try to do every game.”
Ben Shutron opened the scoring midway through the first period and Scott Timmins bumped the Spitfires’ lead to two late in the second period. Battalion captain Cody Hodgson responded late in the second period before Loktionov sealed the win with a pair of goals in the third period in front of a franchise record crowd of 4,861 at the Powerade Centre.
Shutron and Timmins both came to Windsor at the trade deadline after helping the Kitchener Rangers win the OHL championship last year. Boughner said that their presence in the lineup was a factor in the win.
“I thought our guys played pretty hard tonight,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler. “I thought it was a pretty competitive game. You can’t fault the effort on our team.
“We’re not hanging our heads at all,” Hodgson said. “We fought hard today but they were the better team.”
Thomas McCollum allowed four goals on 35 shots before giving way to Patrick Killeen, who turned aside three shots in the final three minutes of the game.
Battalion forward Evgeny Grachev missed the game with the flu.
“It makes a lot of difference,” Butler said. “He’s an elite player. You need your best players when you are playing a team that has the talent the Windsor Spitfires have.”
