One week ago, the Windsor Spitfires were facing the prospects of an early end to their season.
The defending OHL and MasterCard Memorial Cup champions dropped the first three games of the Rogers Western Conference Championship Series to the Kitchener Rangers and were one loss away from the end of their year.
But the Spitfires staged a dramatic comeback that was capped with a 4-1 win on home ice on Sunday to win the series and the Wayne Gretzky Trophy as Western Conference champions for the second straight season.
"We made it really hard on ourselves early and it was a tough hole to dig ourselves out of," said Spitfires' coach Bob Boughner. "I don't know if we overlooked them a little bit or maybe it was the layoff early."
The Spitfires became the third team in OHL history to win a playoff series after losing the first three games and are looking to become the first team since the Kamloops Blazers in 1995 to win the Memorial Cup in consecutive seasons.
Last year, the Spitfires won the Memorial Cup in Rimouski, QC but took the long way to that win as well. They lost their first two games of the series and then won four straight elimination games to become the first team in the history of the tournament to win the Memorial Cup after losing their first two games.
Boughner said that it was that kind of determination that got them past the Rangers as well.
"You've got to give these kids all the credit - they never gave up. The positive attitude and the energy in the room from Game 4 in Kitchener - winning that was huge. It was an intense series and tonight was no different. It was a heck of a series."
Adam Henrique, who tied for the Memorial Cup scoring lead last year with four goals and nine points in six games, opened the scoring for the Spitfires in Game 7 with his 15th goal of the playoffs with a little more than five minutes to go in the first period.
"We're just happy that this series is over," Henrique said. "We may have been focusing on the next series too much but once we got our heads around that this series is the one that counts we started playing our game."
The Spitfires used that momentum to roll into the Rogers OHL Championship Series against the Barrie Colts where they currently lead the finals 2-0 heading back to Windsor. In Game 1 the Spitfires came back after falling behind in the game twice to force overtime. Taylor Hall ended the game 2:35 into overtime with his 16th goal of the playoffs to give the Spitfires an early series lead.
"I knew that their guys were kind of forcing (Ryan) Ellis and I had to get into a soft spot," Hall said about his overtime goal. "Fortunately I got a lot on the shot and I don't think he saw it at all. It was very fortunate for us.
"I thought it was a pretty good effort by our team. We started off a little bit sluggish and that cost us early but as we got going, that helped our legs."
Game 3 of the series takes place Sunday before a live national audience (4:00 p.m. Eastern on Rogers Sportsnet East and Ontario, 2:00 pm Mountain on Rogers Sportsnet West, and 1:00 pm Pacific on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific).
The winner of this series will face the Brandon Wheat Kings in the opening game of the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup on Friday May 14.
Photo by Terry Wilson/OHL Images
