Patrick King

When the defending champ Spitfires were down 3-0, Marc Cantin predicted victory. He was right.

WINDSOR, Ont. -- Marc Cantin's prediction became a reality.

With the defending Ontario Hockey League and Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires staring at a three-game deficit to the Kitchener Rangers, Cantin boldly claimed his team still capable of winning the series. The Spitfires proved Cantin's clairvoyance by finalizing the comeback Sunday and eliminating the upstart Rangers in dramatic fashion.

"Obviously we felt the pressure after losing three straight the first three games," Cantin said. "I thought we responded well. I thought all we needed was one game under our belt and keep the ball rolling."

The Spitfires became only the third team in history to win a playoff series after losing the first three games. Their improbable comeback is topped only by last year's improbable run where they became the first team to capture the Memorial Cup after losing the first two games and needing to go through the tiebreaker.

It would be easy to say the Spitfires found comfort in that all too familiar feeling with their backs pressed firmly against the wall. Perhaps caught looking too far ahead, as the Barrie Colts lay waiting in the wings, Windsor dug itself a hole that it was fortunate to climb out.

The Rangers gave the Spitfires more difficulty than anyone predicted and the turning point was obvious. Windsor saw a 4-1 lead evaporate in the third period of Game 4 before potential first-overall pick Taylor Hall put his team ahead 6-5 with less than two minutes remaining.

"That, to me, is the turning point in the series," Rangers head coach and general manager Steve Spott said. "It gave them a reason to believe when they won Game 4 in our building that they could come back and do it."

Hall admittedly struggled through the majority of that game before scoring the series defining goal. Kitchener captain Dan Kelly was responsible for shadowing the young star and, for the most part, came out on top. Kelly was not on the ice for that goal, as Spott said his team was unable to get the puck deep enough to orchestrate the line change.

The goal brought the Spitfires back from the depths of defeat and reassured the defending champs. Windsor appeared down and out after a center ice dump-in late in Game 3 sealed the victory for the Rangers.

The Spitfires went back to German goaltender Philipp Grubauer after starting Troy Passingham in Game 3 as a means to ignite the team. Grubauer raised his level of play after his Spitfires career had been plagued by inconsistency.

"He was the dressing room MVP," Windsor coach Bob Boughner said.

The young Rangers appeared to have little left in the tank following Game 6's loss at home on Friday. Kitchener was faced with the prospect of playing in its second straight seven-game series and 20th playoff game in 38 days.

As disappointing as it had been for the Rangers to lose the series, it was made even more bittersweet after blowing a huge lead.

"Looking back on it, if we had gone win-loss in repetition and got to a seventh game, we maybe would feel a little bit better about ourselves," Spott said. "To have a commanding lead and not be able to close them out is frustrating.

"We said from day one, it would be difficult to beat these guys four times but saying that, nobody expected us to beat them three so I'm proud of our group."

This was the fourth time in the last six years a team rallied to force a seventh game after losing the first three in the OHL. The Spitfires defeated the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 2005 after losing the first three. Two years later, the Greyhounds forced, but lost in Game 7 to London.

The Rangers won Game 7 over the Belleville Bulls two years ago when Kitchener was hosting the Memorial Cup. Members of both that Rangers and Bulls team comprise part of this year's Spitfires, including Cantin who said this year's win erased the disappointment from two years ago.

"I'm not going to say I held a grudge a couple years ago, but obviously it would have been nice to win - that was for the OHL finals," he said. "This is just as big a win. It preps us for Barrie, so that should be a good series."

Windsor will defend its title against the regular season champion Barrie Colts beginning Tuesday. Barrie won both regular season meetings and has lost just once in three rounds of the playoffs.

The Spitfires take confidence into their next series with Barrie from the way they rallied against Kitchener. The magical run continues for Windsor.

"There's just something about this team," overage forward Scott Timmins described. "We don't take no for an answer. We weren't ready to go home yet."