For a few years in the mid-2000s, the Windsor Spitfires OHL franchise was mired in bad headlines, some being organizational faults but one being a nightmare that no one would wish upon anyone. In 2005, the team’s then-head coach Moe Mantha was suspended for a combined 40 games due to a fight between players Steve Downie and Akim Aliu, as well as facilitating a hazing practice on the team bus, and the team was fined $35,000. At the time also serving as GM, he additionally was suspended for one year from executive work. Mantha was fired just over a month later after a review determined that these incidents and transgressions were detrimental to the players of the team. A further cultural reset came the next calendar year, when the team was sold to an ownership group featuring ex-NHLers Bob Boughner and Warren Rychel. However, darkness would loom over them again in February 2008 when team captain Mickey Renaud (a Calgary Flames prospect) passed away due to an undetected heart condition. Rychel, who also took the mantle as GM, referred to this as “the biggest tragedy in Spitfire history.” How could this franchise and community heal? Things could most likely never be the same again, but there was a way to spark joy and inspiration. They would go down exactly that path. This is the story of the most successful window in Windsor Spitfires history.

The 2008-09 campaign would prove to be a historic one for the Spits in many ways. For one thing, they would move into a new home mid-season. They began the year in the aging Windsor Arena (a historic barn which once briefly served as the home of the Detroit Red Wings) but moved out into the state of the art WFCU Centre in December, then played host in their new digs to the OHL All-Star Classic in February. However, most importantly, they were accomplished. The team saw goaltender Andrew Engelage set the record for most wins in an OHL season via a 5-1 win over the Plymouth Whalers, which was his 46th victory of the season (breaking Steve Mason’s previous mark of 45 with the London Knights in 2006-07). Additionally, the team had the best record in the OHL in the regular season, giving them their first Hamilton Spectator Trophy in 21 years and guaranteeing home ice advantage throughout the entire OHL postseason. This iteration of the club was led on the ice by talents such as Taylor Hall (the previous year’s CHL Rookie of the Year Award recipient), Greg Nemisz, Dale Mitchell, Andrei Loktionov, Adam Henrique, Eric Wellwood, and of course, one of the OHL’s greatest ever offensive defensemen – Ryan Ellis. They were stacked, and with a reliable presence between the pipes in the form of Engelage, you had to think the sky was the limit for them.

In the opening round, the Spits had no trouble with the Owen Sound Attack, sweeping them in four games. The aforementioned Plymouth Whalers, however, gave them a bit more of a challenge. Powered by eventual 2010 second overall pick (Boston Bruins via Toronto Maple Leafs) Tyler Seguin, the Whalers took Game 1 by a score of 6-3 before Windsor responded with an 8-2 win as the road team took both of the first two games. Game 3 was played at the WFCU Centre and the Spits put on a show for their home crowd to take a 2-1 series lead, winning 8-1 as Loktionov opened the game’s scoring with a natural hat trick. The Spits would then drop Game 4 on the road by a score of 3-2, but won in the return fixture 5-2 and then closed the series out in Plymouth 4-2. The London Knights awaited them in the Western Conference Finals, and that series was nothing short of dramatic. While Windsor defeated Dale Hunter’s squad in five games, every single one was decided in overtime. Ryan Ellis was the hero in Game 1, but Phil Verone had the answer for London in Game 2, finishing a job started in regulation by John Carlson and John Tavares. Wellwood would finish things off in Game 3, however, and Loktionov got the job done in Game 4, before another game-winner, and series-winner, by Wellwood in Game 5. It was about as intense of a showdown as you’d expect between two rosters boasting the likes of Hall, Ellis, Loktionov, Tavares, Carlson, and Michael Del Zotto. After this, the J. Ross Robertson Cup Final felt like a cinch. The Spits defeated the Brampton Battalion 10-1 in Game 1, with Loktionov scoring two goals and Justin Shugg (who entered the finals with just two goals to his name in the postseason) recording a hat trick. The rest wasn’t quite as undramatic, and they did need overtime to close out the deciding game, but they prevailed in five games, with none other than Taylor Hall scoring the championship winner. For his outstanding offensive output of 16 goals and 20 assists in 20 games played, Hall was selected as the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award winner as playoff MVP.

Despite the triumphant feeling of winning both their first regular season and playoff OHL championships since 1988, the Spits were still, pardon the Tom Pettyism, running down a dream. The Spitfires had never won the Memorial Cup before and sought to change that in (fittingly enough, given the current tournament’s locaiton) Rimouski, Quebec. Windsor actually didn’t have a very good pool stage, going 1-2 (defeating WHL champions for Kelowna 2-1 in their final round robin game, but losing to QMJHL champions the Drummondville Voltigeurs 3-2 in overtime and 5-4 in regulation to hosts the Rimouski Océanic in the first two). However, they were afforded another chance via the tiebreaker game, in which they defeated Rimouski 6-4. Qualifying for the semifinal via this backdoor route, they subsequently enacted vengeance on the Voltigeurs via a 3-2 win, in which Henrique was the overtime hero. The final against Kelowna would present them with little challenge, as they would win 4-1 and capture the first Memorial Cup championship in franchise history. This was additionally historic on a broader level, as it made Windsor the first team to win the Memorial Cup after beginning the tournament 0-2, as well as the first team to win both the tie-breaker game and the championship in the same tournament. Hall would cap off his terrific D-1 with a Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy win as tournament MVP.

Among the noteworthy returnees the following season were Hall, Ellis, Henrique, Shugg, Nemisz, and Wellwood. They also had a big new arrival by way of rookie defenseman Cam Fowler from the US NTDP (who previously had committed to play in the NCAA with the University of Notre Dame). A solid import also came in the form of Czech forward Richard Pánik. The team lost a number of these top players to the World Junior Championships, including Hall, but nevertheless, Hall finished the regular season tied with Seguin (who attended the selection camp, but did not make the team) for most points in the OHL and the Spits had the best record in the OHL’s Western Conference, while being only second behind the Barrie Colts (who had 116 points to Windsor’s 106). They also led the league in goals for, with 331. For the second year in a row, the WFCU Centre additionally hosted another big time showcase, this time having the 2010 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game played on its ice. The team also acquired a goaltender that would be quite consequential for their postseason run, Philipp Grubauer, from the Belleville Bulls in a seven player deal. They also picked up a strong forward in the form of Zack Kassian from the Peterborough Petes in exchange for Austin Watson and two second round picks. With these acquisitions in mind, it would appear as though they positioned themselves well to make waves in the postseason again.

To that point, the most significant chapter of this part of the story was the playoffs. The Erie Otters were no trouble for the Spits in round one, as they swept them in four games and defeated them by a combined goal differential of 21-10. This set up another semifinal against Plymouth, with one last chance for Hall and Seguin to exhibit their talents against one another before the draft. This year’s matchup was a lot less troubling than the last, as the Spitfires swept the Whalers in four games, beating them by a combined 18-6 (albeit needing OT for Game 4 after erasing a 2-0 deficit in the third period, with Nemisz notably scoring the GTG with just 19 seconds left, but Scott Timmins got the job done to close the series out). Notably, Hall scored three goals in this series (two in Game 1, one in Game 2), while Seguin scored zero. This time around, the juggernaut that awaited Windsor in the conference finals was London’s rivals, the Kitchener Rangers. The first game was a classic, with Jeff Skinner (another highly touted forward prospect for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft) scoring two goals for Kitchener to bring his postseason total to 14, then Jonathan Jasper closing it out in overtime with his first goal of the playoffs to give Kitchener a dramatic 7-6 victory. Kitchener then took a commanding 2-0 series lead with a 5-2 win at home (a game in which Skinner had another two goal performance), then seemingly placed Windsor in a death grip by winning Game 3 5-3, driven by a Jeremy Morin hat trick and a goal by some guy named Gabriel Landeskog.

I think you know where this is going, though. Windsor didn’t go down, winning Game 4 by a score of 7-5, powered especially by Kassian’s two-goal performance (Henrique also scored two goals, including a short-handed empty netter to ice the game). They then took Game 5 at the WFCU Centre 3-0, with Hall opening the scoring and Henrique tallying two goals, including yet another ENG. Grubauer made 28 saves in the shutout. They subsequently won Game 6 by a score of 6-4 in a game defined primarily by Timmins’ natural hat trick, while Grubauer was rock solid, stopping 38 shots. Refusing to come up short, the Spitfires won Game 7 4-1 in a game where they out-shot Kitchener 46-27 and four different goal scorers got on the scoresheet for them, with Wellwood scoring what stood as the series winner. Grubauer stopped 26 pucks as he won the game that made Windsor one of only six teams in OHL history (cumulatively, including years both before and since) and only fourteen teams across the entire CHL to have completed a reverse sweep after being down 3-0. Incidentally, this season, Kitchener became the fourteenth against Windsor in a second round series ultimately decided by Ottawa Senators prospect Lucas Ellinas’ Game 7 overtime winner, but that is a topic for another day (and already got its shine in the present day version of Liam’s CHL Corner, but neither here nor there). Overcoming incredible adversity, the Spitfires were headed to the J. Ross Robertson Cup Final for the second consecutive year, where they would, of course, face the Hamilton Spectator Trophy winning Barrie Colts.

In Game 1, Henrique and Ellis got the job done for them in regulation but the Spits would concede next in the second period to fall into a 3-2 deficit. However, Mark Cundari would score his second goal of the postseason (though he had been a respectable depth playmaker throughout the run and would finish the postseason with 15 assists and 18 points in 19 games) 16:44 into the third period to tie the game and Taylor Hall would get it done on the power play 2:35 into overtime. Cundari would come alive the next game, scoring two goals, including a shorthander, to lead the Spits to a 5-4 victory at the Barrie Molson Centre. Driven by Henrique’s hat trick, the Spitfires would win Game 3 by a score of 5-2. Locked in in pursuit of history, the Spitfires would win Game 4 by a score of 6-2, with two goal performances by Timmins, Fowler (who scored the PPG that ultimately stood as the GWG/series-winner), and Hall (including the empty netter) to win their second straight J. Ross Robertson Cup. While Hall would lead the playoffs in points for the second straight year, Adam Henrique would be selected as the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award recipient in recognition of his Herculean finishing capabilities, with 20 goals to his name in 19 games.

This time around, the Memorial Cup was hosted in Brandon by the Wheat Kings, and there was much less drama involved for the Spits. They went 3-0 in the round robin to top the table, with a +11 goal differential (19 goals for, 8 goals against). They kicked things off by defeating the Wheat Kings 9-3 in a game in which Hall, Henrique, and Timmins all had braces (as in two goals, not the kind that straighten your teeth), then dispatched the WHL champion Calgary Hitmen by a score of 6-2. They then closed out the round robin by defeating the QMJHL champion Moncton Wildcats (coincidentally also the 2025 QMJHL champs) by a score of 3-2 in OT, with Wellwood being the overtime hero. Brandon defeated Calgary in the semifinal 5-4 in overtime, but were no match with the titans of the OHL. Windsor won the 2010 Memorial Cup final by a score of 9-1, with eight different goal scorers getting on the board (Henrique being the sole repeat goal scorer). For the second year in a row, the Windsor Spitfires were the champions of the entire Canadian Hockey League after overcoming so much as a franchise. To cap off his junior career before being drafted first overall by the Edmonton Oilers that summer, Hall was selected as the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy winner for the second year in a row. Fowler (who would be selected 12th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in that year’s draft and became a full-time NHLer in his D+1, therefore making this his sole OHL season) would join Hall as a representative of the champs on the tournament’s All-Star team. This was a great opus to what was one of the most successful and memorable two-year stretches in the history of not just the OHL, but the entire CHL, and cemented this particular microgeneration of the Spitfires as one of the greatest cores ever assembled in major junior hockey.

In 2013, a new ownership group would take over and launch the team into another new era. They would spearhead a successful bid to host the Memorial Cup in 2017. Featuring the likes of Sean Day, Mikhail Sergachev, Jalen Chatfield, and Logan Stanley on the back end and Gabriel Vilardi, Logan Brown, Julius Nattinen, and Jeremy Bracco upfront while Michael DiPietro patrolled the crease, this squad went undefeated in the round robin like their 2010 predecessors before them, defeating the Erie Otters, Saint John Sea Dogs, and Seattle Thunderbirds once each with 14 goals for and 5 goals against to their name. They then defeated Dylan Strome’s Otters 4-3 to capture their third Memorial Cup in nine years and got to celebrate in front of their home crowd. While it was a different core and perhaps even a slightly different “feel,” I am sure that it was nice for the Windsor hockey community to drink in the triumph at home this time around. Since then, Windsor is yet to capture any major hardware, though they have captured the Bumbacco Trophy as West Division Champions in three of the last four seasons. That said, the magic that served as such a turnaround from dark days probably can still have its echoes felt all this time later. It certainly was one of the most memorable narratives in the CHL this century.