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Bulls Tie Club Point Record with Emotional 4-3 Shootout Victory in Windsor
 Parker VanBuskirk stopped 40 shots to help the Belleville Bulls to a 4-3 shootout victory over the Windsor Spitfires Thursday night in Windsor.
The Belleville Bulls tied a club record by reaching the 90 point plateau in a 4-3 shootout victory over the Windsor Spitfires Thursday night in Windsor. P.K. Subban scored the winning goal in the shootout on the Bulls fourth shot. It is Belleville’s first shootout victory this season and helps increase their lead for first place in the Eastern Conference to 11 points over the Oshawa Generals.
The game itself was secondary to the night long tribute to Spitfires Captain Mickey Renaud. Renaud passed away suddenly last week and Thursday’s game was the Spitfires first since his death. Both sides wore special warm-up jerseys dedicated to Renaud and the game began after several touching tributes to the Spitfires Captain. Following the game, both sides lined up and shook hands in a tremendous show of respect.
Windsor opened the scoring, taking their only lead of the night four minutes into the first period when Greg Nemisz completed a pretty three way passing play with Taylor Hall and Joshua Bailey by tipping the puck past Bulls goaltender Parker VanBuskirk at the side of the net. Belleville was quick to respond, trying the score just 34 seconds later with a pretty passing play of their own when Shawn Matthias snapped a hard shot past Spitfires goaltender Andrew Engelage. Eric Tangradi and Bryan Cameron each made terrific passes on the play to earn assists on Matthias’ 28th goal of the season. The Bulls then went ahead 2-1 on the power play with six and a half minutes remaining in the period when Nigel Williams’ point shot was blocked and deflect right to Jan Mursak. Mursak quickly fired a hard shot past an out of position Engelage to give Belleville a 2-1 lead. Adam Perry also assisted on Mursak’s 17th goal of the season. VanBuskirk was very strong during the opening frame to keep the Bulls ahead 2-1 despite being out-shot 14-6 in the period.
It was the Sptifires who pressed throughout the opening stages of the second period but despite numerous great chances, they could not beat a rock solid VanBuskirk in the Belleville net. Windsor was finally able to tie the score with six and a half minutes left in the period when Mark Cundari’s point shot missed the net but deflected off the end boards right to Bradley Snetsinger who quickly flipped the puck past VanBuskirk. Despite giving up the tying goal, the Bulls played a strong final five minutes of the second period and were rewarded with a go ahead goal. Keaton Turkiewicz put Belleville ahead 3-2 when he backhanded a rebound from a Nick Pageau shot past Engelage to score his third goal in two games against his old team this season. Pageau earned the lone assist on Turkiewicz’s 22nd goal of the season. Shots on goal in the second period favoured the Spitfires 14-11.
Windsor tied the game once again just two minutes into the third period on the power play when Hall fired a rebound past VanBuskirk. Both teams pressed for the go ahead goal during the remainder of the period but could not find a way to beat either goaltender. The Spitfires had an outstanding chance to take the lead midway through the period when they were awarded a four minute power play but could not breakthrough an outstanding Bulls penalty kill. Shots on goal in the third period were 14-9 Windsor, as the game headed to overtime.
Neither side was able to generate much offence in the extra session. Windsor did enjoy a late power play in overtime but were unable to score, as the game went to a shootout. Shots on goal in the overtime period were 1-1. In the shootout, Both Jan Mursak and Bryan Cameron scored for Belleville while Ryan Ellis and Bradley Snetsinger scored for Windsor during the first three shots each team took, forcing a fourth shootout round. VanBuskirk stopped Greg Nemisz before P.K. Subban wired a shot past Engelage to give the Bulls the win. Final shots on goal favoured Windsor 43-28.
VanBuskirk was outstanding in goal for the Bulls, stopping a season high 40 shots to earn his 12th victory of the season. Engelage made 24 stops in a losing effort for the Spitfires. Belleville finished the game one for three on the power play while holding the Spitfires to one goal in six attempts with the man advantage. The three stars of the game were Hall, Subban, and VanBuskirk. With the win, the Bulls improve their record to 42-12-4-2 while the Spitfires move to 33-15-6-5 with the shootout defeat. The Bulls will now continue their road trip Friday night when they travel to Saginaw to face the Spirit before wrapping up their trip with a game with the Plymouth Whalers on Saturday. The next home game for the Bulls is next Wednesday night when they will host the Ottawa 67’s for the final time this regular season. Game time is 7:00pm at the Yardmen Arena and tickets are available at the Bulls Box Office. Wednesday’s game is sponsored by GoodLife Fitness and will be shown live on Rogers Sportsnet.
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