The Windsor Spitfires are hoping to continue their winning streak Thursday.
The 3-0 Spits will welcome the Kitchener Rangers to the WFCU Centre. The team is enjoying a scoring blitz from their forwards as well as spot-on goaltending over the first week of the regular season.
Head coach Trevor Letowski says he knows what his top two lines are capable of and they're using the increased ice time to everyone's advantage.
"[Aaron] Luchuk is our best player offensively and that's what we expect of him," says Letowski. "I think with [Luke] Boka and [Mathew] MacDougall, they're excited about the opportunity to play those minutes. Boka is our most consistent player, you know what you're going to get from him."
Those three players make up the first scoring line for the Spitfires and have a combined point total of 13 so far this year. The second line, which features Luke Kutkevicius, Igor Larionov, and Jake Smith, have eight additional points among them.
The Rangers will feature a familiar face on the ice Thursday. Defenceman Logan Stanley is likely to make his first appearance in Windsor since the Spitfires traded him to Kitchener in the offseason. Stanley attended training camp with the NHL's Winnipeg Jets and was sent back to the Rangers earlier this week.
Having played alongside Stanley during the Memorial Cup run, Spitfires goalie Michael DiPietro knows what he is capable of.
"It'll be different," says DiPietro, recently named the first CHL Goaltender of the Week for the season. "I think seeing Stan in different colours will be different at first, but once you get that out of the way, we have a job to do Thursday night. Obviously we miss him here, he's a good friend of mine, but when the puck drops it'll come down to business."
Letowski says he has fond memories of coaching Stanley and knows he will make a mark in the NHL.
"When you coach a kid for a couple of years and win a championship with him, it's always good to see him," says Letowski. "I loved coaching him. He had a lot of success here and he's going to be a great player for a long time. He's going to make their team better, so he's a player we need to be aware of for sure on the ice."
Puck drop is 7:05pm.
