Watching from the stands at the WFCU Centre on Apr. 10, the noise from the 5,051 fans hit hard right at the opening faceoff. This was Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinal, and the Windsor Spitfires gave the sellout room exactly what it came for.
But the evening started with a quiet, necessary nod to the guys who actually document the grind. Instead of executives in suits, the ceremonial puck drop went to local sports photographers Tim Cornett, Tim Jarrold and Gerry Marentette. It was a smart acknowledgement of the people holding the cameras at ice level all season.
And then Windsor turned the volume back up. Ethan Garden ripped a power-play goal just 2:59 into the first period. Max Brocklehurst added a second three minutes later. You could see the shift in momentum against the Flint Firebirds. This was a team that had just swept Owen Sound by a massive 35-3 margin. Trailing was entirely new territory for them.
Flint’s Darian Anderson pushed back with a power-play marker at 16:52, his fifth goal of the postseason. From there, the second period ground to a halt. Windsor’s Joey Costanzo and Flint’s Mason Vaccari, the top two goalies in the playoffs right now, shut the door completely. The 11 combined shots in that period felt like an endless loop of dumping the puck. Honestly, the suffocating neutral zone play dragged the entertainment value of the middle frame down to a crawl.
The third period got ugly. A fight between Cole Davis and Flint’s Jacob Battaglia injected some real venom into the building. When Brady Smith tied the game for Flint at 12:39, the arena went completely dead. But Jack Nesbitt bailed the home team out. He netted a power-play goal at 15:03, then iced the 4-2 win with an empty-netter at 19:13.
Windsor dominated the faceoff circle, winning 41 of 68 draws, which kept Flint’s top scorers like Nathan Aspinall mostly isolated. The Spits leaned heavy on their penalty kill, which was a perfect 14-for-14 in the first round.
Since then, Windsor snagged a wild 6-5 win on Apr. 12 in Game 2, erasing a 5-3 Flint lead with three unanswered goals, including the winner with exactly 60 seconds left in regulation. Now, the series shifts to the Dort Financial Center tonight for a 7 p.m. start. The Spitfires hold a 2-0 lead, but Flint is a completely different beast at home, even though the last time these franchises met in the 2022 playoffs, Flint won Game 1 before Windsor took the series in seven.
All photos by Dan Boshart
