Steve Milton: Bulldogs one win away from Memorial Cup berth

This is the kind of series you wish could go on forever.

Unless, of course, you happen to be a Hamilton Bulldogs player or hard-core fan. They want it to end Monday night. The Windsor Spitfires are too good to give them a chance at a seventh game.

The Bulldogs can wrap up the Ontario Hockey League championship Monday night in Windsor after a gripping, intense, 3-2 victory over the persistent, and opportunistic, Spitfires before a raucous, and ultimately drained, mob of 7,690 at FirstOntario Centre Sunday afternoon.

The Bulldogs now lead this absolutely mesmerizing confrontation three games to two, but Windsor has been in exactly this spot before: in the West Conference final against Flint, and won Game 6 at Flint, and took the deciding match at home.

Our backs are against the wall, like in Flint," said Windsor coach Marc Savard, whose team played a solid counterattacking road style, matching Hamilton's close checking with plenty of their own.

I'm actually excited about it. We battled right to the last second. The good news here is we're going back home. We owe our fans a good game."

The Bulldogs had to overcome 1-0, and 2-1 deficits and did it by scoring on their first two power plays, Ryan Winterton connecting on a muscular scramble in front of the Windsor net in the first period and Mason McTavish, with one of his patented screaming lasers in the second. When McTavish scored again on a deft piece of hand-eye co-ordination two minutes into the third period, knocking his own rebound out of the air and past Spitfire goalie Mathias Onuska, after a superb bit of digging from Patrick Thomas, the top nearly blew off the arena.

Mason is a game breaker, he can do things out there not a lot of guys can do," Hamilton head coach Jay McKee said of McTavish, who has five goals this series, the most on either team. He has a motor that never stops."

After that it was 18 minutes of entertaining stress as each team had its chances and its teenaged miscues. But the low shot total, 26 by Windsor and 24 by Hamilton, reflected how little space there was to wheel and deal for two smooth-skating teams, as both sides had players desperately filling the shooting lanes and trying to force the play outside.

We made some defensive errors we can clean up next time," said McKee. It was just a great hockey game."

Avery Hayes and Logan Morrison both had a pair of assists for Hamilton to give them nine points apiece in the five-game series so far. Morrison has at least one point in all 17 of Hamilton's playoff games, while his 35 points are four back of Windsor's Wyatt Johnston, who has been brilliant in tandem with linemate and captain Will Cuylle.

Johnston opened the scoring when his hard shot over the net rebounded off back the glass, hit the top of the net, then struck Hamilton goaltender Marco Costantini from behind and trickled into the net. Impressive rookie Ryan Abraham gave Windsor a 2-1 lead three minutes into the third after some sloppy Bulldog clearing attempts.

Hamilton native Costantini made a win-preserving save with 90 seconds left and Onuska pulled for a sixth skater that brought his hometown crowd roaring to its feet. He lunged to his right to steal a sure goal from Daniel D'Amico on another of those long-side opportunities the Spitfires keep generating.

Three Windsor Spitfires in front of the net and the puck bounced right in front and came to me," D'Amico said, shaking his head. He got a blocker on it. He's a helluva goalie. Maybe one of those will go in."

Costantini said when the puck, went to the back door, I just threw my stick out to make that save," and complimented his teammates for preventing long shots from getting through and keeping his sight lines clean. He was also thankful for the Bulldogs' penalty killing unit, which thwarted Windsor on all three attempts Sunday, and has allowed only two Spitfire power-play goals in 19 chances, both in Game 2. They're 0-for-9 since then.

There is a chippy animosity between these two teams which has been accelerating all series. With the pandemic-influenced scheduling, they hadn't faced each other all season, but they're very familiar with each other now. Savard hinted that the officiating had been a little inconsistent on the physicality and the Bulldogs' bench has had some complaints too.

Hamilton fans responded Sunday to the Bulldogs' 3-2 comeback overtime win in Windsor Friday night by arriving in droves and creating a thunderous atmosphere in the lower bowl, which was completely packed. The excitement started with a pre-game audience cellphone light show and the Bulldogs responded by starting with a 6-1 edge in shots before a penalty interrupted their momentum

After the game, both teams headed down the highway for Monday's Game 6 (7 p.m. TSN) at Windsor's WFCU Centre, where the Bulldogs will try to wrap up the series, and begin planning for the Memorial Cup, which begins Monday, June 20, in Saint John, N.B. Game 7 is back in Hamilton Wednesday if it's necessary and D'Amico thinks it will be.

We're the best two teams in the Ontario Hockey League," D'Amico said.

And there can be no argument about that.

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com