Mitchell steals spotlight with hat trick
By Aaron Bell
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Dale Mitchell figures that it was his best period of hockey ever.
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The Windsor Spitfires’ veteran forward scored a natural hat trick in the third period of the tie-breaker game against the Rimouski Oceanic on Thursday to propel the Spitfires into a semi-final matchup against the QMJHL champion Drummondville Voltigeurs on Friday (7:00 p.m. Eastern on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS).
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“I don’t think I’ve had (a bigger period),” Mitchell said. “The puck was just bouncing my way and guys were finding me. A credit to the guys – I don’t put any of those pucks in the net if they don’t put them on my tape. All 23 of us were ready to go and that’s what we did.”
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Mitchell, a 20-year-old from Mississauga, ON, has been overshadowed by star teammates like Taylor Hall and Ryan Ellis during the Spitfires’ championship playoff run. But Mitchell scored 14 goals and 29 points in 20 playoff games and was a key contributor to the Spitfires winning their first OHL championship in 21 years.
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But on Thursday, Mitchell took his game to a new level, scoring three straight goals to wrestle a third-period lead away from the home team and give the Spitfires new life after starting the tournament with a disappointing 0-2 record.
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“We all were really confident that we would come back,” Mitchell said. “We just had to make sure we didn’t give any goals up against. We knew we were getting our chances. We knew it was going to come and it came in the third period.”
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Earlier in the tournament, Mitchell was one of the veterans that Spitfires’ coach Bob Boughner called out to step up their production. Obviously Mitchell was listening.
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“He struggled the first game in this tournament but got slowly better,” Boughner said. “We needed some supplemental scoring. We hadn’t been scoring goals like we were used to and getting goals from (Eric) Wellwood, (Greg) Nemisz and then Mitchell exploded for those three. That’s what we needed. All year we’ve had depth and all three lines scoring and it was nice to see that (again).”
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Mitchell said that he was thrilled with his production in the tie-breaker game but quickly focused his attention to Friday’s semi-final.
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“To come out and have an impact like I did tonight was just amazing,” Mitchell said. “But I have tom come out tomorrow night and have just as good a hockey game or today means nothing.”
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Photo by Aaron Bell/CHL
