I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since my last post. I’m having a lot of renovations done, and it isn’t easy to write with power drills and saws screaming in the background. While two weeks is a bit long to go between posts, something else has happened here that hasn’t happened in 21 years.
The Windsor Spitfires have won the OHL championship.
Taylor Hall scored early in overtime to lift the Spitfires to a 2-1 victory over the Brampton Battalion, thus clinching the series four games to one.
This has been a long road for Spitfire fans who suffered through many lean years. The team was often making headlines more for its off-ice antics than its gameplay. And then there was Barn-gate, the city’s epic inability to build a new arena, meaning our beloved Spitfires had to play in an old (70 years?) arena dubbed “The Barn” for far too many years.
But now with a brand new facility, the WFCU Centre (I prefer to call it “The Hangar”), and solid ownership and management, the Spitfires could be the class of the OHL for years to come.
Hats off to the Brampton Battalion for getting better as the series went along. And a special salute to the London Knights. Wow! Their five game series with the Spitfires will remain with me forever. Five games, five overtimes. That was some of the finest hockey I have ever seen, OHL or NHL. I’m not sure we’ll have a better series in the Memorial Cup.
That’s right, there’s still more hockey to be played. So rest up Spitfires, you’re off to Rimouski to represent Ontario in the battle for Canadian junior hockey supremacy.
Go Spits go!