Strange happenings last night in a game three of the OHL playoff first round series between the Windsor Spitfires and London Knights. The Knights won their third straight blowout of the series, this one by a 10-2 score and goaltending meltdowns were certainly the focus.
In the Windsor net, Dalen Kuchmey was making his first start of the series. Windsor starter Alex Fotinos came down with the flu and so head coach Bob Boughner turned to his back up in Kuchmey in this must win game. It obviously wasn’t Kuchmey’s night and after surrendering his sixth goal of the game he asked to be pulled in the second period. Boughner refused as Fotinos was still feeling ill on the bench.
After an eighth goal, on just 26 shots, Kuchmey decided he would take no more. Without permission, he exited the ice, went to the dressing room, took off his gear and left the arena. All before the second period ended. As a result Fotinos was forced into the game, and he gave up a further two goals.
Speaking about the bizarre situation, “You’re going to have to ask him,” Spitfires head coach Bob Boughner said when asked why Kuchmey left. “He left the ice, left the rink before the period was over. So, he quit on our team, quit on his teammates.”
“We have a backup goalie (Fotinos) that I asked after the first period, he’s been sick all day, I asked if he would be OK to go if we had to pull Kuch at some point,” Boughner said. “He said, ‘If you need me, great, but I don’t feel very good at all.’”
Even teammates were left perplexed by the situation.
“I don’t even really know what’s going on with the whole thing,” Spitfires fourth-year centre, and Montreal Canadiens prospect Brady Vail said of Kuchmey’s departure. “We obviously didn’t play the right way in front of him. I thought maybe he could have had a couple of them, too.”
“It was his call and obviously that’s not something you like to see, but again I don’t really know what’s going on.”
Meanwhile at the other end of the ice, London Knights goalie and Philadelphia Flyers prospect Anthony Stolarz also finds himself in a bit of hot water.
In the first period, with the Knights already up 3-0, Stolarz high-sticked Windsor forward Joshua Ho-Sang in the face. He received a two-minute penalty on the play and the OHL will review it to see if further discipline will be neccessary. However, one can bet that David Branch will come down hard on this.
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