In Brampton, Andrei Loktionov scored the winning goal late in the second period to lead the Windsor Spitfires to a 5-3 win over the Brampton Battalion in Game 2 of the Rogers OHL Championship Series in front of a record crowd of 4,837 at the Powerade Centre.
The Spitfires lead the series 2-0 and host Game 3 on Monday (7:05 p.m. on Rogers TV, TV Cogeco and the OHL Action Pak).
Dale Mitchell, Mark Cundari and Ben Shutron all scored in the first period to stake the Spitfires to an early lead.
“We talked about how important the start would be,” Spitfires' coach Bob Boughner said. “We knew that Brampton would be ready to play tonight after the first game and they were. That was probably the best first period we’ve played in the playoffs against this kind of competition.”
Jason Dale put the Battalion on the board early in the second period and the Matt Kang added a pair of goals for Brampton but Taylor Hall ended the comeback attempt with an empty net goal with 37 seconds left on the clock.
“As the game went on, I thought that Brampton picked their game up even more,” Boughner said. “It was a great second period - we were on our heels a little bit. We found a way to win and we’re obviously happy that we did.”
Greg Nemisz had a pair of assists and Andrew Engelage made 25 saves in the win.
Thomas McCollum made 37 saves in the loss.
Kang said that despite losses in the first two games of the series, the Battalion are confident that they can get back into it with a win in Windsor on Monday.
“Momentum is a big thing and for the last two periods we had that on our side,” Kang said. “Going into the next game I think we’re confident enough to go in there and get a W in their arena. Obviously it’s a tough rink with the fans but we have to block that out and give it our all.”
