Cuylle avoids suspension and will be in lineup for Spitfires for Game 2 against Sting

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Windsor Spitfires’ captain Will Cuylle will be back in the lineup on Saturday.

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An incident late in the second period in Thursday’s playoff opener game against the Sarnia Sting could have brought a suspension to Cuylle.

“I’ll be good to go Saturday,” Cuylle said after practice on Friday “It’s all good and I’ll be back.”

In Thursday’s game, which the Spitfires won 3-0, Cuylle and defenseman Alexis Daviault were involved in an altercation. However, Daviault did not drop his gloves and Sarnia forward Angus MacDonell jumped into to try and help Daviault out.

Cuylle was given an instigator penalty, fighting major and 10-minute misconduct against Daviault, who was handed a roughing minor. Cuylle was then handed a second fighting major and game misconduct for a second fight in the same stoppage of play.

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League officials reviewed the situation and while Cuylle was handed a second fighting major, MacDonell was ruled the instigator in the second fight, which got Cuylle off the hook for a suspension.

“Everything is good,” Spitfires’ head coach Marc Savard said. “He’s playing.”

MacDonell, who was also give a game misconduct for being the third man into the altercation, will also not face a suspension.

“Both of those kids are able to play,” OHL vice-president Ted Baker said Friday.

While the top-seeded Spitfires did not light it up offensively in opener of the best-of-seven Western Conference quarter-final series, the club was solid defensively against the eighth-seeded Sting and will look for the same in Game 2, which is set for 7:05 p.m. at the WFCU Center.

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“I think we just have to play the same way,” Cuylle said. “Continue to be detailed in habits and how we’re playing defensively and the offense will come by itself.”

The Spitfires did spend some time practice time on Friday working on the power play. Windsor, which had the No. 3-ranked power play in the league during the regular season, converted just one-of-eight chances in the series opener after going 20-for-40 with the man advantage against the Sting in the regular season .

“I just think it was not finishing,” Savard said. “I think we still generated scoring chances. We hit a couple posts, crossbars and we just fine tuned some things.”

The Spitfires had four players finish with 30 or more goals during the regular season in Wyatt Johnston, Cuylle, Matthew Maggio and Daniel D’Amico, but none found the back of the net in the opener. Instead, the club got a boost with goals from third-line winger Alex Christopoulos, fourth-line winger James Jodoin and defenseman Andrew Perrott.

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“That’s what you need in the playoffs to win,” Cuylle said. “It shows how deep our team can be.

“Early on, it’s good to realize how important they are in the playoffs. There are going to be nights where the top guys are held off the scoresheet and you need other guys to step up and we have 12 forwards and six (defencemen) that can do that.”

Goalie Matt Onuska needed to make just 11 saves to record his first OHL shutout and the first one by a Spitfire goalie in the playoffs since Jack Campbell in 2011. Savard expects the Sting will try to get more pucks to the net in Game 2 on Saturday before the series shifts to Sarnia for Game 3 on Tuesday and Game 4 on Thursday.

“Obviously, they’re going to try to get more pucks to the net,” Savard said. “We did a good job keeping them outside and the penalty kill (five-for-five) did a good job.

“They’ll probably make their strongest push to try and get a split because that goal and we just have to play our game. We want to get both games here at home and it’s in our court.”

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