The Windsor Spitfires hung on Friday night to beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 2-1 at the FirstOntario Centre.
With the win on their first road game of the regular season, the Spits improved to 3-0, keeping pace with Sault Ste. Marie for the lead in the OHL West Division.
It was a scoreless tie until 13:55 elapsed in the first period when Cole Purboo put it in the net for his first goal of the year. The Spitfires were aggressive with the shots on goal, outshooting Hamilton 12-5 in the opening frame.
The second period was scoreless, but Windsor was on the power-play twice. The Spitfires doubled their lead at just past the halfway point of the third period with Pasquale Zito's first of the season. Payton Vescio scored late in regulation for the Bulldogs to avert the shutout, but they were unable to pull out the equalizer.
Xavier Medina stopped all but one of the 19 shots he faced in net for Windsor in his OHL debut. Marco Costantini had 33 saves out of 35 tries for Hamilton.
Windsor heads to Erie Saturday night to take on the Otters.
