THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINDSOR, Ont. — The Ontario Hockey League’s comeback kids are at it again.
Justin Shugg and Scott Timmins each had a goal and an assist Sunday as the Windsor Spitfires beat the Kitchener Rangers 4-1, completing a rally from 3-0 down in the series to advance to the Ontario Hockey League final.
The Spitfires are just the third OHL team ever to win a series after trailing 3-0. They move on to face the Barrie Colts starting Tuesday night.
"There is absolutely no quit in anyone in our dresing room," said Timmins. "Even when we were down three games everyone believed we could come back.
"This series was a lot like the one we had against Plymouth last spring," he added, referring to the OHL Western Conference semifinal when Windsor won in six games. "We had to work for everything we got."
Adam Henrique and Eric Wellwood also scored for Windsor on Sunday afternoon while Philipp Grubauer stopped 26 shots.
Julian Cimadamore replied for the Rangers, who got 42 saves from Brandon Maxwell.
Windsor needed a comeback to win the Memorial Cup last spring, when it became the first team ever to capture the tournament after losing the first two games.
After dropping the opening three games to Kitchener in this year’s Western Conference final, the Spitfires stormed back to force Sunday’s Game 7.
Henrique opened the scoring when he grabbed a rebound off of a Taylor Hall shot and deked Maxwell for his 15th goal of the post-season.
Wellwood made it 2-0 on a nice individual effort, splitting two defencemen before scoring at 8:18 of the second period.
Cimadore’s goal late in the second period made it 2-1, but Timmins and Shugg scored just over three minutes apart in the opening half of the third period to restore a comfortable lead.
Spitfires GM Warren Rychel says his team learned a lot about itself and that will only help going forward into the league championship series against the Colts.
