GAMEDAY: SPITFIRES HOST GENERALS
Former Spitfires Return to WFCU Centre
(Windsor, ON) – The Spitfires wrap their season series with the Oshawa Generals tonight, completing the back half of an extended home-and-home set at the WFCU Centre (7:05).
Windsor (25-11-5-0) won the first game of the short season series 4-2 on Sunday in Oshawa.
The Spits have now won five of their last six games, including a 5-0 shutout over the Owen Sound Attack at the WFCU Centre on Thursday.
FORMER SPITS RETURN
Longtime Spitfires coach Bob Jones returns to Windsor for the first time since taking the head coaching job with the Generals during the off-season. Assistant coaches Eric Wellwood and Greg Nemisz won back-to-back Memorial Cups along with Jones in 2009 and 2010.
Defending a Memorial Cup title of their own, a now rebuilding Oshawa (16-20-3-2) club has lost back-to-back games, including a 5-2 defeat in Kingston Friday.
DIPIETRO RECOGNIZED
Rookie goaltender Michael DiPietro is the CHL’s Goaltender of the Week.
DiPietro posted wins in both of his starts last weekend, making 62 saves, good for a .969 save percentage to go along with a 1.00 goals against.
The 16-year-old Amherstburg native posted his second shutout of the season in Thursday’s win, before stopping 32 shots in Oshawa.
DiPietro brings an 11-3-1-0 record and a 2.29 goals against average (good for second in the OHL) into tonight’s action, along with a .924 save percentage.
WHO’S HOT?
Christian Fischer recorded six points (2G, 4A) in three games last weekend, including a two-goal, two-assist effort against the Generals. He leads the club in scoring with 52 points.
Motorburger Player of the Week Gabriel Vilardi has five points in his last three, including a three-point night against the Gens, playing on a newly-formed line with Fischer and Hayden McCool.
McCool has seven points (3G, 4A) in five games in January.
Aaron Luchuk has at least a point in four of his last five games, recording two goals and five assists.
SPECIAL TEAMS
POWER PLAY
WSR: 36-for-156 (23.1% 4th), OSH: 33-for-164 (20.1%, 6th)
PENALTY KILL
WSR: 119-for-150 (79.3%, 13th), OSH: 120-for-153 (78.4%, 16th)
