The last time the Soo Greyhounds and Windsor Spitfires met in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs, a majority of players on both current rosters weren’t born yet.
The one thing that series does have in common with the upcoming set between the two clubs is that the playoff meeting in the spring of 2005 also involved the second and seventh seeded teams in the Western Conference.
After the Greyhounds took a 3-0 series lead, Windsor won game four in overtime and proceeded to beat the Greyhounds in seven games in 2005 as the seventh seed. The series win included a double overtime victory in game seven
In speaking with the current coaches, the expectation is that the 2025 series won’t be an easy one for either team.
“They’re a big team, fast, with a ton of skill up front,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean. “We expect them to play an extremely fast, team speed brand of hockey and take away a lot of time and space against our guys and they like to stretch us out. The expectation is that it will be a very difficult series.”
“It’s going to be tight,” said Windsor coach Greg Walters. “I don’t think the Sault would be in the seven hole if they were healthy all year. They’re very well coached. It’s going to come down to who defends harder, execution, discipline, and who can step up in the big moments. We’re expecting a tight series.”
What do the Greyhounds need to do to be successful against the Spitfires?
“We need to eliminate their speed and try to keep the puck out of the hands of their forwards,” Dean said. “Just intangibles (are important). Our compete, our work ethic, our care factor. Our willingness to sacrifice self for the team.”
Asked about the keys to the Spitfires success during the regular season, Walters credited the Windsor players for completely buying into the system put in place when Walters joined the organization prior to the start of the season.
“(Assistant coaches) Casey Torres, Kris Newbury, and myself came up with a plan that we wanted to defend,” Walters said. “Our first option was to defend and get our breakouts, our D zone, and our tracking roles put into place. To the kids’ credit, they 100 per cent bought in. We have the skillset to score, but it comes down to defending first and get onto the offence.”
Walters also credited the additions of defencemen Tnias Mathurin and Wyatt Kennedy to the returning group on the blue line to maintain the defensive side of the game for the team.
“They’re big, steady, more stay-at-home defencemen,” Walters said. “It just helped the (Anthony) Cristoforos and (Carson) Woodalls play a little bit more offensively minded. We’ve got big (Josef) Eichler and (Conor) Walton that play hard (as well).”
A team that had to battle until the final weekend of the regular season to clinch a playoff spot, some late season playoff-like experience will be important for the Greyhounds in the series.
“It’s experience to play in a game that potentially means your season,” Dean said of the stretch run. Experience in high anxiety situations. Those things are tough to teach. They need to go through them. As opposed to going through those in the first round against Windsor, our young guys have already felt the tension of a late-period lead in a do-or-die style game or felt the anxiety of game where it’s labelled as a must-win for us to make the playoffs.”
Following game one on Thursday night, the teams will meet in game two on Saturday in Windsor before the series shifts north for game three on March 31 and game four on April 2.
Game five, if necessary, is in Windsor on April 4 with game six on April 6 in the Sault and game seven in Windsor on April 8.