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Oceanic collapse in third period, lose 6-4

Written by: Jesse Michael on 22nd May 2009

PHOTO BY SCOTT VANKOUGHNETT

Leafs' prospect Dale Mitchell, powered by a sick duster, scored a natural hat-trick in the third period. | read this item

On the back of Leafs prospect Dale Mitchell, the OHL Champion Windsor Spitfires eliminated the hometown Rimouski Oceanic defeating them 6-4 on Thursday night.

Mitchell had the game of his life, recording a natural hat-trick in 3:33 of the third period after Rimouski took a two goal lead going into the third period.

It didn’t surprise Mitchell’s teammate, defenceman Ryan Ellis, that he was so dominant.

“We call him the energizer bunny, he’s always on batteries,” said Ellis. “When he is going he’s a great player to play with and as you can see that’s what he can do.”

Eric Wellwood opened the scoring for the Spitfires at the 7:13 mark of the first period, and had plenty of praise for the moustache sporting Mitchell.

“I’m going to have to give him a back massage tonight, he really carried us,” said Wellwood.

Rimouski’s Sebastien Piche scored their first goal of the game 49 seconds after Wellwood’s, blasting a one-timer from the point past a screened Andrew Engelage to tie it 1-1.

Scott Timmins restored the one goal lead 28 seconds later, restoring the lead after firing a shot from the top of the cirlcle that Maxim Gougeon should have caught.

Rimouski finished out the first period firing two more past Spitfires Andrew Engelage; Jordan Caron with his second of the tournament, and Emmanuel Boudreau with his first of the tournament.

Both teams played a hard fought second period, but it was a goaltender period as the only goal that was scored was off the stick of Rimouski’s star forward Patrice Cormier, who gave Rimouski a two goal lead going into the third period.

Windsor stormed out of the gate in the third however, with the line of Taylor Hall, Andre Loktionov, and Mitchell dominating from the outset.

PHOTO BY SCOTT VANKOUGHNETT

A last minute effort to get a powerplay failed when Andrew Engelage’s stick proved legal

“They played a four period game last night, so we knew that their legs probably weren’t going to be there,” said Mitchell. “We knew we had to pound their defenceman, get pucks to the net, and the results were good.”

Rimouski gave their best effort to recover after such a crushing turn of events, but couldn’t muster much offence after the Spitfires clamped down into a 1-2-2 trap.

Windsor added the sixth goal on a powerplay with 0.6 seconds left in the third period to seal the win.

Engelage made 37 of 41 saves for the Spitfires, who move on to face Drummondville tomorrow night @ 7 pm.

For more on how this game played out read my blog from the game.

Topics: Andrew Engelage, Dale Mitchell, Eric Wellwood, Memorial Cup, Patrice Cormier, Rimouski Oceanic, Ryan Ellis, Taylor Hall, Toronto Maple Leafs, Windsor Spitfires