The long wait finally ended for goalie Carter Froggett.

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The long wait finally ended for goalie Carter Froggett.

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The 18-year-old Froggett saw his first action in more than six weeks on Sunday for the Windsor Spitfires.

Despite a 43-day break between games, Froggett was solid with a 23-save performance to help the Spitfires to a 5-2 win over the Brampton Steelheads before a crowd of 5,210 at the WFCU Centre.

“I was pretty excited,” said the six-foot-four, 215-pound Froggett, who was also making his first home appearance since Nov. 10. “It’s been a while and I was just excited to get back in there.”

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Froggett had stopped all 11 shots he faced in the first period of a Dec. 13 start in London, but fell backwards and suffered a medial collateral ligament strain that sidelined him. He was supposed to return to action last week on the road against Barrie, but was one of several Spitfires that came down with the flu.

“It was weird not being in the locker room, but it’s fun now,” Froggett said.

The absence of Froggett left No. 1 goalie Joey Costanzo with a heavy load to carry in net with the club trying to spot him with 17-year-old Michael Newlove and 16-year-old Jake Windbiel on brief callus.

“It’s nice to see the game from up on the catwalk to see how Joe plays the game,” Froggett said. “How Newlove and Windy played those games. It’s nice to see how the game’s played by the goalie.”

But Newlove and Windbiel are only available on a limited base. Now, with a 21-point lead atop the West Division, Froggett’s return will now allow the Spitfires to ease Costanzo’s workload down the stretch.

“We had him going a couple times and things happened to him,” Spitfires’ head coach Greg Walters said. “We definitely would have wanted Froggett to play more than he has. Just grateful he’s back healthy and he played extremely well (and) we’ll probably get him back in pretty quickly. He definitely deserves the net again.”

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The Spitfires leaned heavily on Froggett in the first period. Windsor was outshot 14-7 in the opening 20 minutes, but held a 2-0 lead on goals by Ryan Abraham and Noah Morneau.

“I wasn’t happy with our first,” Walters said. “I thought they outcompeted us, I thought they outhit us and I thought outworked us, but we were up 2-0. Carter Froggett played extremely well. ”

The Spitfires held the Steelheads to just five shots in the second period, but Brampton showed it’s quick-strike ability on offence with Lucas Karmiris, on a power play, and Carson Rehkopf scoring in the final six minutes of the period to tie the game at 2-2 after 40 minutes.

In the end, special teams would carry Windsor to victory as the club improved its league-leading home record to 18-2-0-1.

First, while killing a penalty, Ilya Protas took a drop pass from Liam Greentree, drew the puck between his legs to beat a Brampton defender and went wide to beat the goalie from a sharp angle for the go-ahead just 53 seconds into the third period.

Greentree then outraced two Brampton defenders and went in alone to tuck a backhander just inside the post for another short-handed goal.

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“Definitely Protas, no doubt,” Greentree said when asked who had the prettier goal. “For us, it’s just trying to be aggressive on the PK (penalty kill) and whenever there’s a bobbled puck, just go as hard as we can.

“If we have a two-on-two or a two-on-one, we’re trying to put the puck in the back of the net and that happened (Sunday) and it’s great for us. I wasn’t expecting that, but it was great.”

Prtoas added a power-play goal late in the game as Windsor began a stretch of seven home games with a victory.

The club returns to action on Thursday against the Flint Firebirds at the WFCU Centre. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

jpparker@postmedia.com

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Game Summary

Sunday Result

Spitfires 5 Steelhead 2

Brampton 0 2 0 – 2

Windsor 2 0 3 – 5

First period: 1. Windsor, Abraham 16 (Lemieux, Mathurin) 7:10, 2. Windsor, Morneau 15 (McNamara, Mathurin) 17:33.Penalties: Eichler W (cross checking) :36, Alriksson B (elbowing) :59, Van Volsen B (high sticking) 9:05, Walton W (high sticking) 12:03, Witkowski B (roughing), Eichler W (roughing), Spellacy W (roughing) 20:00.

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Second period: 3. Brampton, Karmiris 6 (Zebeski, Fibigr) 15:16 (pp), 4. Brampton, Rehkopf 27 (Van Volsen, Misa) 19:47. Penalties: Karmiris B (double minor high sticking) 1:48, Spellacy W (cross checking) 12:24, Mathurin W (high sticking) 19:47.

Third period: 5. Windsor, Protas 31 (Greentree) :53 (sh), 6. Windsor, Greentree 33 (Mathurin, Protas) 7:29 (sh), 7. Windsor, Protas 32 (Greentree, Woodall) 17:43 (pp). 

Penalties: Gaymes W (roughing) 6:24, Zidlicky B (goaltender interference) 9:36,  Harding B (roughing), Nesbitt W (slashing), Spellacy W (roughing)  10:04, Cristoforo W (high sticking) 11:56, Harding B (roughing) 16:34, MacDonell B (roughing, fighting), Cristoforo W (slashing, fighting) 17:27. 

Game stats – SOG – Brampton 14 5 6 – 25 Windsor 7 10 7 – 24 Goal (shots-saves) – Brampton: Ivankovic (L,15-8-4-0) (24-19). Windsor: Froggett (W,4-2-1-0) (25-23). Power play (goals-chances) – Brampton 1-8. Windsor 1-6. Referees: Joe Monette and Aaron Neely. Linesmen: Dan Kovachik and Will Lamoureux. Att.: 5,210 at the WFCU Centre.

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