Spitfires savour final days together
By Aaron Bell
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For a handful of Windsor Spitfires’ players, Sunday’s championship game at the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup will be bittersweet, win or lose.
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The Spitfires’ have a core group of players including forwards Greg Nemisz, Adam Henrique and Eric Wellwood and defenceman Marc Cundari that all came to the club through the OHL Priority Selection in 2006. Captain Harry Young came over from the Guelph Storm in a trade that season and the following year stars Taylor Hall and Ryan Ellis were scooped up in the draft.
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Since then, the Spitfires have become one of the model franchises in the Canadian Hockey League, winning back-to-back OHL championships, hosting league events like the SUBWAY Super Series and Home Hardware CHL Top Prospects Game. They also won the Memorial Cup in record-setting fashion last year in Rimouski, QC and this year they rebounded from a 3-0 series deficit to the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL Western Conference final.
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Along the way, the players also had to cope with the unthinkable when their captain Mickey Renaud passed away on February 18, 2008.
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Sunday’s game will mark the end of the junior careers for several of those players.
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“A lot of these kids are going on to their own careers after Sunday’s game,” said Spitfires’ coach Bob Boughner. “We’ve talked about it a lot. Sunday is going to be mixed emotions I think. Obviously our focus is going to be on trying to win this thing but afterwards there will be a lot of emotions I’m sure.”
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The Spitfires jumped out to a 3-0 record at the Memorial Cup this year and will face the host Brandon Wheat Kings in the championship game on Sunday (7:00 p.m. Eastern on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS).
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“We’re excited for it,” said Henrique, the MVP of the OHL playoffs. “We know what’s on the line. It’s going to be nerve wracking, exciting, a really emotional night. For the most part it will be our last game together and we’ve got an opportunity to repeat which is something that hasn’t happened very often.”
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The Spitfires haven’t loss since Game 3 of the Western Conference final against Kitchener and bring an 11-game winning streak into Sunday’s final. They have also won seven straight games at the Memorial Cup, including a 9-3 win over the Wheat Kings in the tournament opener last Friday.
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“We came here wanting to win again and we’re one game away from doing that,” said Wellwood. “I think we’re going to see a completely different team than we saw in the first game. I think they had a little rust the first game.”
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The Spitfires don’t expect that the opening game will provide them with much information on how to beat the Wheat Kings in the championship game. After that loss, the Wheat Kings rallied with a 4-0 win over the Moncton Wildcats on Monday and scored a come-from-behind overtime win in the semi-final against the Calgary Hitmen on Friday.
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“We’ve seen throughout the tournament that they’ve progressively gotten way better,” Wellwood said. “Last night (in the semi-final) really showed how good their team has become. I think that’s good and will make for a good competitive game.”
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Photo: Aaron Bell/CHL Images
