Hall brings Spitfires back to life
By Aaron Bell
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Despite his young age, Taylor Hall is already showing a penchant for scoring big goals.
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The Windsor Spitfires forward scored the overtime winner in Game 5 of the OHL Championship Series to help the Spitfires win their first OHL championship in 21 years and on Tuesday the 17-year-old from Kingston, ON scored a goal and assisted on the other to help the Spitfires to a 2-1 win over the Kelowna Rockets.
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The win kept the Spitfires Memorial Cup championship hopes alive. After dropping their first two games in the tournament, Tuesday’s match was a win or go home situation for the Spitfires, who came into the Memorial Cup as the top rated team.
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The Rockets opened the scoring on a powerplay midway through the second period before Hall tied it with his first goal of the tournament nine minutes later. Then he set up Ryan Ellis with what proved to be the game-winner early in the third period.
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“I hadn’t scored in two games and it was nice to get a good bounce there,” said Hall, who was the first star of the game. “I’m very happy for our team. We really needed that (goal) and after that I think we got going a little bit.”
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Hall was the Spitfires top scorer in the regular season and playoffs and is the youngest winner ever of the Wayne Gretzky “99” Award as the most valuable player in the OHL playoffs.
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“I like to play in the pressure situations,” said Hall, the CHL rookie of the year last season and a top-rated pick for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. “Before the game I had a good feeling about the game and I just wanted to come out and really contribute and play hard. It might have been the last game of the year and no matter what the score was I was going to go out fighting.”
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Hall was focused on producing for the Spitfires despite spending most of the game lined up against Rockets’ standout defenceman Tyler Myers, who helped Canada win gold at the World Junior Championship in January.
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“He’s a very good defenceman – especially with that long reach,” Hall said. “I just wanted to try to keep the puck away from his stick and just try to battle with him and shield the puck from him. Luckily my line got a couple of goals. It was good that we shut him down defensively and got some chances offensively.”
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The Spitfires will play in the tie-breaker on Thursday against the loser of the final round robin game tonight between the host Rimouski Oceanic and QMJHL champion Drummondville Voltigeurs. The Rockets clinched a spot in Sunday’s championship game after winning their first two games of the tournament.
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“We’ve got to win three games in a row to get there (the championship game),” Hall said. “We’ve won 16 in a row this year, we’ve won 18 in a row so three games isn’t much to ask. They’re going to be three really good teams but we’re going to battle. We’re not going out without a fight.”