The Windsor Spitfires knew all along they
would not have a high-octane offence but that offence appears to be
in full drought.
For the second straight game, the Spitfires failed to put a shot
behind the opposition goalie.
Plymouth Whalers goalie Jeremy Smith made 32 saves in a 4-0
shutout win over the Spitfires Thursday.
The Spitfires offence has now gone 138 minutes and four seconds
without a goal going back to the third period of last Friday's game
in London.
Windsor has the fewest goals in the OHL with just 22 in in 11
games and Thursday's shutout was the third put up by the opposition
this season.
Defenceman Harry Young made his Windsor debut after a deal with
Guelph Wednesday for Jonathan Sciacca.
Young saw a regular shift while Sciacca was dealt again Thursday.
He was sent to Kingston with goalie Jason Guy for former Kingston
first-round pick Luke Pitther and a fifth-round pick in 2009.
As for the Spitfires, they had plenty of chances early to get
their offence rolling Thursday.
Windsor had six of the game's first seven power plays in the
first period, but came away with nothing and were actually outshot
16-11 in the period.
Windsor, which is 19th in the league in the power play, wound up
blanked on eight chances and have now clicked on just 9.4 per cent
of their chances this season.
Both teams showed little finish to their game with shots either
blasted into the goaltender or fired wide of the net.
It wasn't until the final minute of the second period that that
Whalers got all the offence they would need.
James Neal's shot was stopped by Anthony Guadagnolo, but
Plymouth's Evan Brophey fired the rebound just past the goalie's
outstretched blocker hand.
Plymouth's special teams sealed the win in the third period.
Windsor's Bradley Snetsinger was stripped on a power-play rush
and the Whalers' Jared Boll raced in on Guadagnolo, who made 50
saves. He made the first save, but Dan Collins tapped in the
rebound.
Plymouth's power play, which has also struggled and had just
eight goals coming into the game, fired a pair in the third period.
Steve Ward's point shot made it 3-0 and Brophey got his second by
tucking in a shot in the game's final minutes to hand the Spitfires
their third straight loss.