Cole Coskey makes history as first player in franchise history to play 300 games as Spirit kick off eastern conference road trip with 6-2 victory over Mississauga

Mississauga, ON:

 

Cole Coskey made history becoming the first player in franchise history to dress in 300 career games, as the No. 10 ranked (in the Kia Canadian Hockey League rankings) Saginaw Spirit (39-16-3-2) kicked off another Ontario Hockey League eastern conference road trip with a 6-2 victory over the Mississauga Steelheads at Paramount Fine Foods Arena in Mississauga, ON Thursday afternoon.

 

Coskey, who was selected by the New York Islanders in the 2019 NHL draft, turned down a scholarship offer to play NCAA division I hockey for the University of Miami Ohio five years ago after being selected by Saginaw in the third round of the 2015 OHL priority selection draft, spending his entire career with the Spirit, eventually becoming the all time Spirit leader for games played (271) back on Friday December 13, 2019 where he scored the game winner with 38-seconds left in a 5-4 victory over Flint. 

 

Thursday, the Spirit would take advantage of an early Steelheads penalty when captain Damien Giroux (42) converted a power play goal with assists coming from Cole Perfetti and Bode Wilde to give Saginaw a 1-0 lead just 1:08 into the opening frame, while the red hot Blade Jenkins (from Ryan Suzuki and Coskey at 1:19 of the second period) and Camaryn Baber (from Josh Bloom and Dalton Duhart at 11:23 of the second) followed with back to back markers, extending the Spirit lead to 3-0 midway through the second period, before Steelheads' LW Richard Whittaker (19) cut the Spirit lead to 3-1 with his nineteenth of the season at the 15:52 mark. 

 

Jenkins (16) added a power play goal on a feed from DJ Busdeker to give the Spirit a 4-1 lead at 9:59 of the third period, while Spirit forward Danny Katic (12) followed with his twelfth of the year from Jake Goldowski and Danil Antropov to make it 5-1 game at 12:30 of the third, before Mississauga forward Michael Stubbs (4) scored a power play goal to make it a 5-2 game at 14:16 of the third, while Coskey (32) capped the scoring with his thirty-second of the season from Reilly Webb and Jenkins for a 6-2 lead at 19:13 of the final frame.

 

Saginaw goal tender Tristan Lennox continues to stay hot, stopping 22 of the 24 shots he faced in net for the Spirit Thursday afternoon. 

 

The Spirit will have Friday off, before heading to the First Ontario Centre for a 4 pm face off against the Hamilton Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon.