• Gensen Geldart enters the final game of this inter-league series as Saginaw's leading point-getter (0G-4A--4P). He had three assists in Saturday's overtime loss.
• Saginaw's first round pick in 2026 Drew Bate got onto the scoresheet for the first time Saturday with a goal and an assist.
• Forwards Cooper Bordeaux (1G) and Max Wildfong (1A) each managed a point on Saturday as well.
• Rookie goaltender Egor Sokolov played the whole game for Saginaw, stopping 16 of 22 Newfoundland shots.
• Regiment forward Liam Arsenault had four points (2G-2A) on Saturday.
• Dima Zhilkin, Levi Harper, Tyler Martyniuk, Gordei Khotkov, Brody George, and StepanShurygin were healthy scratches on Saturday.
• Newfoundland scored three powerplay goals Saturday afternoon (3/7) while the Spirit went 1/5 on the man advantage
• With 48 penalty minutes on Saturday and 61 on Friday, the two teams have combined for 109 PIM already.
• The Corner Brook Civic Centre is the home of the Corner Brook Royals of the West Coast Senior Hockey League.
• The Royals won the 1986 Allan Cup as champions of the WCSHL.
• The Civic Centre was also host to the 1999 Canada Games.

• The Spirit needed only 16 seconds to open their preseason scoring when Levi Harper let one go from the right circle. Dima Zhilkin and Tyler Martyniuk got the assists
• Harper finished the night with two goals and an assist. Zhilkin was the game's other three-point man (1G-2A)
• Exact shot counts are unavailable, but goaltender Brady Knowling exited the game with a 3-0 lead halfway through the second period, leaving the rest of the night to Stepan Shurygin. The Russian goaltender held Saginaw in front though a late-game push from the Regiment.
• Ryan Hanrahan's second period game-winning goal came on the powerplay at 15:01. Hanrahan finished the night with a goal and an assists
• Gensen Geldart picked up a helper on Hanrahan's powerplay goal
• Despite having never played before, the two teams combined for 55 penalty minutes on Friday. Five ten-minute misconducts were handed out, and Brody Najim and Newfoundland's Will Reynolds were ejected after a fight later in the game
• Cooper Bordeaux, Bode Stewart, Graydon Jones, Blake Barnes, Xander Velliaris and Egor Sokolov were healthy scratches on Friday night and will likely see action Saturday or Monday
• Grand Falls-Windsor is the largest town in the Central Region of Newfoundland with a population of 13,853

• Tonight's game will be the third meeting between the Spirit and a QMJHL opponent. They beat the Drummondville Voltigeurs 4-3 in the round robin of the 2024 Memorial Cup, as well as the Moncton Wildcats in 2018 preseason action at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
• Formerly the Acadie–Bathurst Titan, the Newfoundland Regiment played their first season in 2025-2026, finishing third in the Eastern Conference with a 38-22-3-1 record in 64 games. They beat Cape Breton in a six-game opening-round series before falling to the Blainville-Boisbrand Armada in round two.
• Newfoundland boasts a trio of NHL-Drafted players in defensemen Alexis Mathieu (ANA) and Will Reynolds (SEA), as well as goaltender Louis-Antoine Denault (FLA)
• 18-year-old Louis-Francois Belanger is the team's highest-scoring returner from the 2025-2026 season (25G-25A--50P).
• The Steele Community Centre is considered the heart of Gander, as it includes the ice rink, walking track, and cafeteria. When the town of Gander hosted more than 7,000 airline passengers due to closed U.S. airspace on September 11th, 2001, the ice rink was used by the Salvation Army as a space to store food donations to the stranded travelers. The arena was dubbed "the world's largest refrigerator".

• The Spirit brought 26 players with them to Newfoundland (14 forwards, nine defensemen, three goalies).
• Three players are working to earn an OHL SPA this preseason: forwards Max Wildfong (7th Round, 2025) and Cooper Bordeaux (8th Round, 2023), as well as goaltender Egor Sokolov (3rd Round, 2026).
• Friday night's game will mark the first of the Brendan Taylor era in Saginaw. The new head coach will be joined behind the bench by assistants Saverio Posa and Aron Augustitus.
• Import defenseman Gordei Khotkov arrived from Kazakhstan during training camp. The 16-year-old stands at 6'5", 210lbs and will be a fixture on the Spirit blueline wearing #7.
• Forward Bode Stewart and defenseman Josh Glavin enter their overage seasons in 2026-2027. The pair were drafted one round apart by the Spirit in the 2022 OHL Priority Selection, and Stewart rejoined the team last year after a stint with the Barrie Colts.
• Goaltender Brady Knowling, defensemen Kade Meyer and Tyler Martyniuk, and forwards Brody George and Alex Milojevic are all expected to make their Spirit preseason debuts after spending last season with the U.S. National Team Development Program.
• Spirit captain Dima Zhilkin and defenseman Levi Harper are primed for the start of a crucial year - their NHL Draft season. Both have already been identified as potential first-round picks.
• This will also be the first draft-eligible season for Meyer, Martyniuk, Milojevic, Drew Roscoe and Gensen Geldart
• Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Stepan Shurygin rounds out Saginaw's goaltending corral, giving them two NHL-drafted goalies for the first time since 2005 (Mike Brown, Jeff Weber)
• Saginaw's NHL-Drafted prospects are: Jacob Cloutier (WPG), Stepan Shurygin (TBL), Brady Knowling (SJS) and Brody Pepoy (TOR)
• The Spirit will also see the debuts of forwrds Drew Bate (6th overall) and Kyler Lauder (24th overall), joining Egor Sokolov as members of their 2026 OHL Priority Selection class.

Amendments to Fighting Penalties 

The Board of Governors approved amendments to the OHL Discipline Policy governing fighting penalties, effective for the 2026-27 season.

Under the amended policy:

• Previous parameters enforced a team-wide threshold of a maximum of 50 fights in a single season and a maximum sanction of $2,000 per fight for exceeding that threshold. The new parameters will see the team-wide threshold reduced to 35 per team, with a fine of $5,000 assessed for each fight beyond the team-wide threshold.

• A player may be assessed a maximum of three fighting majors between the start of the regular season and Dec. 31. That total resets on Jan. 1, with a maximum of three additional fighting majors permitted through the remainder of the regular season.

• A separate threshold of three fighting majors continues to apply throughout the OHL Playoffs.

• Any fighting major beyond the applicable limit results in supplemental discipline in accordance with the OHL Discipline Policy — a minimum two-game suspension for the player exceeding the threshold, unchanged from the standard currently in place.

• The League will also be strengthening its application of discipline with regards to instances of premeditated fights before the drop of the puck as well as players involved in the second fight within the same stoppage.

The framework these amendments operate within

The thresholds above sit within the OHL's existing rules governing fighting conduct, which remain unchanged, and which distinguish between controlled participation and predatory behaviour.

Penalties for instigating, aggressor conduct, premeditated fights, bullying and a second fight in the same stoppage continue to apply, and are enforced independently of the thresholds set out above — as does the long-standing provision that a player who has been instigated upon does not have that fighting major counted toward his own total or his club's. Each OHL member team also remains subject to an in-game threshold of three major penalties for fighting, with a sanction of $500 per fight beyond the threshold. Fighting in the OHL is not consequence-free: it is regulated, penalized, and subject to progressive discipline.

The League will continue to sanction dangerous play more severely than spontaneous fighting and will continue to monitor for premeditated fights and predatory conduct through officiating and supervisory reporting. That monitoring is also enhanced by Spiideo, the comprehensive in-venue video review system introduced across the League in 2025-26, which gives OHL Hockey Operations the footage required to assess fighting scenarios and apply consistent judgment.

Review

Throughout the 2026-27 season, the OHL will conduct a review of fighting occurrences, including numbers and distribution across players and teams. The findings will inform policy for future seasons.

2026-27 OHL Season – Key Hockey Operations Dates 

August 24 – Earliest date teams can open training camp (Erie granted exemption to start August 22) August 27 – Trade window for defected players (until September 15) September 17 – OHL regular season commences November 13 – Reduce overage protected players list players to a maximum of four December 1 – CHL/USA Top Prospects Game (Chicoutimi, QC) December 2 – CHL/USA Top Prospects Game (Quebec City, QC) December 4 – Restricted trading period for World Junior players (to January 5) December 20 – Restricted trading period begins (to December 26) January 7 – Reduce overage protected players list to a maximum of three January 7 – Final overage trade deadline (12:00pm) January 8 – Final trading deadline (12:00pm) January 15 – Final date to sign an overage player January 20 – Connor McDavid OHL Top Prospects Game (Owen Sound) February 10 – Final date to sign a player March 21 – OHL regular season concludes March 25 – OHL Playoffs commence May 21 – 2027 Memorial Cup (Guelph, ON)