For the first time in the history of the Windsor Spitfires franchise the team played a home game in a location other than the cozy confines of the Windsor Arena.
A week after the lights went out in ‘The Barn’ for the last time, a boisterous capacity crowd of 6,600 fans welcomed the Spitfires to their new home, this evening. The Windsor Family Credit Union Centre officially opened as the Belleville Bulls, the top team in the Eastern Conference, traveled down the 401 to face-off against the Spitfires who have been near the top of the CHL rankings all season long.
The first penalty of in the WFCU Centre was a cross checking penalty called against Windsor defenceman Mark Cundari 9:29 into the opening period. This power play resulted in the first ever goal being scored at the WFCU Centre as the Bulls’ Eric Tangradi was able to light the lamp for the first time in the new building scoring at 11:08 of the first period. The goal was assisted by Nick Palmieri and Shawn Lalonde. The Spitfires had numerous scoring chances throughout the rest of the period but were not able to beat Belleville goalie, Mike Murphy and the score would remain 1-0 heading into the second period.
Lalonde would add a shorthanded goal in the second period to increase the Bulls lead to a 2-0 off of assists from Stephen Silas and Marc Cantin. Stephen Johnson would score Belleville’s third goal of the night 19 seconds into the third and Bjorn Krupp scored his first OHL goal to seal the Spitfires’ fate on the opening night of the WFCU Centre.
Murphy made 34 saves in the contest to earn his third shutout of the season.
(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)
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