The Windsor Spitfires will enjoy a well-earned break.

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The Windsor Spitfires will enjoy a well-earned break.

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The Ontario Hockey League’s surprise team of the 2024-25 season headed into its break for Christmas in a familiar way on Thursday – with a win.

“It feels good for us to get those two points,” Spitfires’ overage forward Noah Morneau said. “Getting this one’s big for us. It just adds to our lead in the division and keeps us in second place in the conference, which is a big accomplishment for us.”

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Last in the Western Conference a year ago, the Spitfires will head into an eight-day break for Christmas with a double-digit lead atop the West Division after a 4-1 win over the Western Conference on Thursday before a crowd of 4,298 at the WFCU Centre.

“We came into this year with a lot of confidence and a bad taste in our mouth from last year,” Morneau said. “I think some teams maybe felt we were going to be similar to the team we were last year and we were kind of flying under the radar for a bit, which is fine, but people know how good we are now and teams know how good we are now and it’s a really good feeling to be at the top of our division and second in the conference.”

Now 23-7-2-1 on the season, Thursday was Windsor’s league-leading 14th win at home this season in 17 games.

“The fan base is unreal,” Spitfires’ forward Cole Davis said. “I think we came with a great effort and ultimately I think we just outworked them and it led to a good result.”

The Spitfires were without five regulars in the lineup in the finale before the break with A.J. Spellacy with the U.S. world junior team while injuries sidelined Tnias Mathurin, Ethan Belchetz, Owen Outwater and Carter Froggett. The Spitfires recalled Alec Stewart, Michael Lavigne and Jake Windbiel from junior B LaSalle with 16-year-old rookies Carter Hicks, J.C. Lemieux and Ethan Garden logging more minutes.

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“I think our depth and our role players were able to fill those guys spots (Thursday) and played really well,” said Spitfires’ head coach Greg Walters, who hopes to have Mathurin and Belchetz back after the break.

While some filled in the gaps, it was the line of Davis, Morneau and overager Ryan Abraham that stepped up offensively with three goals and seven points.

“They were all dogs out there,” Walters said. “They were hunting the puck, they’re good defensively, they have good sticks and they could have had a bunch more, too. It was fun to watch them out there.”

And veteran goalie Joey Costanzo was again solid with 27 saves to earn his league-leading 20th win in 27 appearances this season.

“A lot of guys are excited to go home and see their families, but our focus was on (Thursday’s) game,” said Davis, who had a goal and three points. “Just get this last win and go into the break on a high.”

Morneau redirected a point shot to give Windsor a 1-0 lead after the first period. Essex native Charlie Paquette briefly pulled the Storm even, but Spitfires’ captain Liam Greentree responded just 20 seconds later to put the Spitfires up 2-1 after two periods.

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Abraham gave Windsor some breathing room before Davis closed things out with an empty-net goal.

“Seeing how well we’ve been and seeing how well we’ve played, it’s really satisfying so far, but we still have to keep it going,” said Morneau, whose team returns to action Dec. 28 with back-to-back road games in Sault Ste. Marie. “We can always get better. There’s still stuff we need to work on and fine tune, but we’re playing some really good hockey and it should carry over.”

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Game Summary

Thursday Result

Spitfires 4 Storm 1

Guelph 0 1 0 – 1

Windsor 1 1 2 – 4

First period: 1. Windsor, Morneau 11 (Cristoforo, Davis) 12:58. Penalties: Topp G (fighting), Martin W (fighting) 5:33, Abraham W (cross checking) 19:27.

Second period: 2. Guelph, Paquette 9 (Spada, Singh) 5:19, 3. Windsor, Greentree 21 (Prots, Woodall) 5:39. Penalties: Stevens G (cross checking) 11:37, Spada G (roughing), Nesbitt W (roughing) 12:54, Snelgrove G (roughing), Lemieux W (roughing) 16:24, Beauchesne G (fighting), Davis W (fighting) 16:59.

Third period: 4. Windsor, Abraham 11 (Davis, Morneau) 12:15, 5. Windsor, Davis 11 (Nesbitt, Abraham) 19:56 (en). Penalties: Beauchesne G (tripping) 14:57, Morneau W (slashing) 17:28. 

Game stats – SOG – Guelph 11 9 8 – 28 Windsor 13 10 14 – 37 Goal (shots-saves) – Guelph: Ellsworth (L,0-4-0-1) (36-33). Windsor: Costanzo (W,20-5-1-1) (28-27). Power play (goals-chances) – Guelph 0-2. Windsor 0-2. Referees: Ryan Hutchison and Joe Monette. Linesmen: Phil Nadeau and Luke Pye. Att.: 4,298 at the WFCU Centre.

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