The Spitfires are on the verge of their first OHL championship in over 20 years, and providing the city of Windsor with a much needed boost.
There’s a nervous energy building within the Windsor Spitfires.
With the Spitfires leading their Ontario Hockey League championship series three games to one over the Brampton Battalion, Ryan Ellis and his teammates realize how close their group is to winning the franchise’s first league championship in 20 years.
Picked by many as the pre-season favourites to win the championship, the young Spitfires are used to the pressure that label has presented from the outset. With their goal now within reach, as they can seal the championship Friday on home ice, Ellis maintains the team is nervous, but focused.
"Our guys are pretty excited but probably a little nervous," Ellis told sportsnet.ca Thursday. "None of us have really been this far in the playoffs."
Neither, for that matter, has the franchise in a long time.
Since 1988, their only championship season, the Spitfires had failed to make it back to the league final series until this season, they had made it to the Western Conference Final just once, a five-game series loss to the Erie Otters in 2002.
None of the team’s current players were born when the Spitfires won the title 20 years ago, when they were known as the Windsor Compuware Spitfires.
The Spitfires have provided a city in desperate need of good headlines a much needed lift, which has been well-documented in recent weeks.
Reminders of the state of the local economy are in plain view for the players with, workers protesting right outside their rink.
"We see the city workers all the time picketing outside the rink," said Ellis. "It’s hard to see stuff like that but you kind of want to bring those people – the people who have been behind you and supporting you the whole year and the last few years – you want to bring the championship to them, let alone yourself."
It’s easy to forget the players are just teenagers, who are now holding the weight of hockey fans in an area undergoing huge economic turmoil. The fans have still been arriving in droves, packing the newly-built Windsor Family Credit Union Centre.
While the opportunity to win a championship is always special, Ellis acknowledges that given the state of the city and the support of their fans, winning the championship on home ice would bring even more satisfaction.
"The guys are really excited for this next game, especially with it being at home and it would be something special to do it in front of our fans," he said. "I think all the guys are kind of just ready to get the game over with."
Standing in the way are the Eastern Conference champion Brampton Battalion. The Battalion have no room left for error in a series where they haven’t always played up to their potential. A shocking 10-1 loss in Game 1 raised questions of a possible sweep. Brampton excelled and got back to the basics in Game 3, an impressive road victory, only the second game the Spitfires have lost in front of their home fans in the playoffs.
Ellis is expecting a Battalion performance resembling that of Game 3 as opposed to the overmatched Battalion showing in the first contest.
"I think we’re definitely going to see their best game," he said. "They’re not the kind of team that’s just going to roll over and quit. They have a lot of skilled guys and they have a lot of character guys as well so I think they’re going to show the best performance of the playoffs.
"I think we’re going to have to match that and just come out harder than them and hopefully get the first goal in that game."
The game-plan for Thomas McCollum, the Battalion starting goaltender, will remain the same: traffic and lots of it. McCollum left Game 4 late in the third period after Spitfires forward Dale Mitchell went crashing the net and slid into the goaltender.
Meanwhile, Spitfires starter Andrew Engelage, who has been criticized as the team’s supposed weak link, has been rock solid in goal for Windsor in the series. The overage goaltender posted an impressive .926 save percentage in the first four games of the final, including a 40-save effort on 41 shots in Wednesday’s Game 4.
"He’s had a lot of pressure on him," Ellis said. "A lot of people have kind of down-talked his performance over the course of the year but I think he’s done a wonderful job throughout the season and into the playoffs and especially this round – he played a heck of a game (Wednesday)."
While the situation is new for the Spitfires, playing for their first championship in two decades, Ellis believes the nervous energy, coupled with the raucous home crowd of fans deserving a championship, could help push his team to victory.
"We’re really excited to get this game going and hopefully we can finish them off at home," he said, "but we’ll see what happens."
