Otters fall in Game 5, 7-4
The Erie Otters gave up two early goals against the Windsor Spitfires and couldn’t quite recover in Game 4 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals, losing 7-4. The Spitfires have a 3-1 series lead as Erie faces elimination in Friday’s Game 5.
Tom Kuhnhackl and Alex Khokhlachev scored on the first two Spitfires shots, which led to Ramis Sadikov being pulled for Chris Festarini at 3:52. The Otters got on the board at 8:27 as Tyler Hostetter fired a shot from the right circle that went off the glove of Jack Campbell and into the net for his first goal of the playoffs.
Stephen Johnston scored on the power play for Windsor at 12:54 to give Windsor their two-goal lead back, although David Shields was able to bounce a pass off of Nick Ebert and into the Windsor net for his first of the playoffs at 15:45 to make it 3-2 going into the second period.
Zack Kassian scored on a wraparound 47 seconds into the second period to end Festarini’s night, as Sadikov returned to the Erie net. Greg McKegg scored his second goal of the playoffs at 4:56 as he fired a rebound into the open net to make it a 4-3 contest.
Windsor had the answer again on the power play as Kuhnhackl scored his second of the game at 8:33. Jake Carrick followed up with his third goal of the series for Windsor at 13:34 to make it a 6-3 game after 40 minutes of play.
The Otters received a glimmer of hope 5:01 into the third as Mike Cazzola scored on a two-man advantage, although Khokhlachev added his second of the game to put the Otters away for good at 6:50, and give Windsor the 7-4 victory.
The Otters look to avoid elimination Friday night in Windsor in Game 5, starting at 7:05 p.m. Fans can listen to all the action on Fox Sports Radio AM 1330 The Fan or online at ottershockey.com (courtesy of the James H. Cross Company).
