Liam Greentree will happily trade personal points for team points.
The Windsor Spitfires’ second-year captain had his 12-game point streak come to an end on Friday in a 3-0 road win against the Flint Firebirds.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Kings got right back on the scoresheet with a goal and an assist to help the Spitfires to a 4-1 win over the Firebirds before a crowd of 4,002 at the WFCU Centre.
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“I’m not too worried about my points streak,” Greentree said. “I just come out to play each night and win for the Windsor Spitfires.”
Greentree leads the league with 21 assists and sits second in points with 29 in 14 games.
“For me, the biggest thing I’ve been doing is focusing on my little details in the (defensive) zone and that’s translated to the scoresheet,” Greentree said. “It’s led to a lot of offence for me.”
At 12-2-1-0, the Spitfires now hold a seven-point lead in the West Division and boast the OHL’s best winning percentage at .833.
“I think everybody here believes it’s been going really well, but the best part about it is there’s so much more on the table,” said Spitfires’ forward Noah Morneau, who had a pair of assists on Sunday. “There’s so much more potential that this team can bring.
“Four points against a team like Flint, it doesn’t show up necessarily right now, but down the road those are big games and it’s good to have those games locked up early. We have to keep that going.”
Flint took more than 15 minutes to record a shot on Sunday and produced just two in the opening period and 17 overall in the game, but the Spitfires only held a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes after Morneau set up Greentree on a Windsor power play in the opening period.
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“We just knew we had to stick to what we were doing,” Morneau said. “There was no panic in the second period. We felt like we were in control.
“We feel if we get sticks in lanes, we box out, we clear pucks, we battle in the corners. We’re so hard to play against, if we give up less than 20 shots, it’s going to be hard to beat us.”
The league’s top-rated offence quickly showed its quick-strike ability with three goals in 72 seconds in the third period to take control of the game with Ethan Martin netting his first of the season followed by defenceman Tnias Mathurin 47 seconds later before A.J. Spellacy split a pair of Flint defenders and scored 25 seconds after that.
“It’s a big step and I’m really happy to see it’s not all about scoring,” Morneau said. “We’ve bought in as a team (defensively) a little bit more and when that happens, good things happen.”
Goalie Joey Costanzo, who got the shutout on Friday, had his attempt at back-to-back blank sheets end with less than nine minutes to play in regulation.
Still, Costanzo now boasts 11 wins in 12 decisions and has already surpassed his win total of 10 in 39 games last season. He’s allowed two goals or fewer in 10 of his starts and leads the league with a 1.67 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage.
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“We try not to talk about last year as much as we can,” Morneau said. “Obviously, it was a tough year, but I think a huge part of (this year’s success) has been Joey.”
The Spitfires return to action on Thursday against the North Bay Battalion at the WFCU Centre. Game time is 7:05 p.m.
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Game Summary
Sunday Result
Spitfires 4 Firebirds 1
Flint 0 0 1 – 1
Windsor 1 0 3 – 4
First period: 1. Windsor, Greentree 8 (Morneau, Spellacy) 8:31 (pp). Penalties: Konyen F (hooking) 6:35, Lombardi F (fighting), Abraham W (fighting) 11:39, Konyen F (cross checking) 12:06.
Second period: No scoring. Penalties: Mania F (cross checking) 8:42, Greentree W (holding) 12:42, Anderson F (too many men) 13:45, Winegard W (roughing) 19:02.
Third period: 2. Windsor, Martin 1 (Outwater, Morneau) 9:49, 3. Windsor, Mathurin 2 (Abraham, Greentree) 10:36, 4. Windsor, Spellacy 5 (Cristoforo) 11:01, 5. Flint, Tessier 1 (Frolov, Wang) 11:23. Penalty: Martin W (cross checking) 14:43.
Game stats – SOG – Flint 2 6 9 – 17 Windsor 11 6 8 – 25 Goal (shots-saves) – Flint: Day (L,6–60-1) (25-21). Windsor: Costanzo (W,11-1-0-0) (17-16). Power play (goals-chances) – Flint 0-2. Windsor 1-4. Referees: Kurtis Pare (42) and Alex Ross (29). Linesmen: Geoff Rutherford (62) and Brandon Shaw (49). Att.: 4,002 at the WFCU Centre.
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