Saginaw Spirit aiming high as playoffs approach

The Saginaw Spirit are ready for an historic stretch run.

After surviving a rough part of the season that included losing seven of eight games, including five straight, the Spirit have rebounded with five straight victories and secured a spot in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.

With 11 games to go, starting tonight at the London Knights, the Spirit have an 11-point lead in the quest for their first West Division crown in their nine-year history.

The Spirit, 37-16-3-1 on the season, also trail the Owen Sound Attack by just two points in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference when the OHL playoffs get under way next month.

"We're close to where we want to be," said Spirit coach and general manager Todd Watson. "We're coming off two of our better weekends of the year, but we're back to this injury thing."

The Spirit played the last two games without Brandon Saad, their fifth-leading scorer with 24 goals and 22 assists, who has an upper body injury. He has missed six games in the second half due to injury.

"It concerns me," Watson said "You want to be playing well and you want to be healthy. I don't think I'm asking too much. But sometimes it doesn't go the way you want."

The Spirit, who are aiming for a franchise-best season, made some moves near the Jan. 10 deadline to beef up their defense. They acquired Dalton Prout (6-3, 217) on Jan. 9 from the Barrie Colts and Brandon Archibald (6-4, 197) on Jan. 10 from the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds.

"I think we got character, quality guys in the deals," said Watson, who had to give up future draft picks to land the big defensemen.

At the time of the trades, the Spirit were leading the Western Conference. But after winning four of their next five games, the team hit the skids.

Saginaw lost seven of its next eight games and finally snapped a five-game losing streak on Feb. 11 against Owen Sound.

"If you can look back on the dip we had, it rocked us," Watson said. "It also straightened us out. It was good for us and we came out of it. Now I can say, it couldn't have come at a better time. It reminds us that we always have to work hard."

"It's been a great season," said center Vincent Trochek, the team's third-leading scorer. "We've come such a long ways from last year. We had a great start and every team has those rough patches. I wasn't worried when we went through that slump because I knew we had what it takes to go all the way."

"We struggled a bit," Archibald said. "But I think every team goes through that. I went through it with the Soo. Good teams will find a way to get out of it, and we got out of it."

Watson said the slump had nothing to do with the new additions. He noted that a couple of long road trips, combined with bad weather, basically kept the team from practicing.

The Spirit, who are in contention for the Memorial Cup (awarded to the best junior team in the Canadian Hockey League), made moves from the season's start to be a contender.

They secured goalie Mavric Parks, an overage player, from the Barrie Colts in early August. Parks played for last year's second-best OHL team.

"This is the first time we've had a Memorial Cup champion contender," said Craig Goslin, Spirit managing partner/president. "We've got a team that has been recognized around the league. We had a team, the 2005-06 team, that was highly regarded, but not like this team."

Goslin said the Spirit season has been a good one from the start.

"Todd Watson is known for his strong starts and he likes to come out of the gates strong, and that's why he traded for Mavric early," Goslin said. "He wanted to make sure that he had an overage goalie and the top goalie in the league.

"We thought we'd come out strong, and we didn't really anticipate the lull we had after the trade deadline, but that happens. It was no fault of the players."

Goslin said the Spirit have been pleased with the community support.

"We're getting between 5,000 and 5,500 fans," Goslin said. "And it really helps our guys. When the building is full and there's a lot of energy, our guys have a lot of jump to them."

The Spirit's final stretch of the season includes two games with the Windsor Spitfires, the defending Memorial Cup champs, and the Plymouth Whalers. Both teams trail Saginaw by 11 points in the West Division.

"It's going to be like the playoffs, these last 11 games," Trocheck said. "It's kind of been that way a little already.

"I think that's going to be real good because we're not playing lower-end teams going into the playoffs. We're not going to be lackadaisical."

"We've battled a lot of adversity and injuries, and our guys, including myself, were slumping for a while," said Parks (26-13-0-1), who has allowed just under three goals per game as Saginaw's top netminder.

"But the adversity that we battled as a team has made us deeper and brought us together. It shows how tight we've gotten from the adversity."

Parks said he's not sure if the Spirit will be the top seed in the Western Conference when it's all said and done, but he said the team will do just fine in the playoffs no matter where it is seeded.

"We might not get back first place (in the conference), but we're not going to have any trouble going into someone else's barn for Game 7 and trying to find a way to win," he said.