Sports · Saginaw
Saginaw Spirit beat Kitchener 4-2 at home, a week after the Rangers won in overtime
SAGINAW, Mich. — The Saginaw Spirit played their first home game in two weeks Saturday night, Oct. 10, when the Kitchener Rangers visited the Dow Event Center.
Saginaw was 2-2-2-0 after six games of the Ontario Hockey League season. Kitchener arrived at 4-4-0-0, according to the league scoreboard posted on the Spirit’s website.
The teams met eight days earlier in Kitchener, and the Rangers won it late. They tied the game 3-3 with their goalie pulled and under two minutes left, then scored 10 seconds into overtime on a power play carried over from a Saginaw unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. Luca Santala scored both goals, according to the Spirit’s game recap.
Braidy Wassilyn scored twice for Saginaw that night. He had scored in all six of the Spirit’s games, the team said.
Saginaw won its most recent game, 3-2 in overtime at Brampton on Oct. 3. Dima Zhilkin scored twice, including the winner 4:27 into overtime, for seven goals on the season. Wassilyn added a goal and two assists, and goaltender Brady Knowling stopped 24 of 26 shots. The Spirit went 2-for-3 on the power play.
A former Spirit forward reached the NHL this week. Nikita Klepov, who led the OHL with 97 points as a Saginaw rookie last season, made his debut for the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night, a 5-2 loss to Edmonton. At 18 years and 102 days old, he became the youngest player in Ducks history, according to The Associated Press. Anaheim drafted him 15th overall in 2026, the Spirit said.
After Saturday, Saginaw played at Windsor on Monday afternoon, Oct. 12, and won 3-2 in a shootout. It then faces Sarnia twice: Oct. 16 in Sarnia and Oct. 17 at the Dow Event Center, both at 7:05 p.m.
Updated Oct. 8, 2026: Added the result of Nikita Klepov’s NHL debut Wednesday night.
Updated Oct. 12, 2026: Saginaw beat Kitchener 4-2, the team reported. Braidy Wassilyn scored twice to run his goal streak to seven games, the longest by a player to start a Spirit career, and Brody Pepoy and Dima Zhilkin also scored. Brady Knowling made 27 saves.
Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The headline and summary were changed to report the result of the game this story previewed.
Updated Oct. 13, 2026: Saginaw won 3-2 in a shootout at Windsor on Monday, the team reported. Dima Zhilkin opened the scoring in the first period and had the only goal of the shootout, Jacob Cloutier tied the game 2-2 midway through the third, and Stepan Shurygin made 34 saves. Zhilkin and Braidy Wassilyn each stretched their point streaks to eight games. The Windsor line above was changed to the past tense.
Sources:
Saginaw Spirit via OurSports Central, “Shurygin Stops 34 to Secure Spirit Shootout Win in Windsor,” Oct. 12, 2026, https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/shurygin-stops-34-to-secure-spirit-shootout-win-in-windsor/n-6420846
WNEM-TV, “Wassilyn’s goal streak hits seven games as Spirit beat Rangers on Ice Out Cancer Night,” Oct. 10, 2026, https://www.wnem.com/2026/10/11/wassilyns-goal-streak-hits-seven-games-spirit-beat-rangers-ice-out-cancer-night/
Saginaw Spirit, “Wassilyn’s goal streak hits five, Spirit manage point in Kitchener Friday,” Oct. 2, 2026, https://chl.ca/ohl-spirit/video/wassilyns-goal-streak-hits-five-spirit-manage-point-in-kitchener-friday
Saginaw Spirit, “Zhilkin, Wassilyn propel Spirit to OT win in Brampton,” Oct. 3, 2026, https://chl.ca/ohl-spirit/video/zhilkin-scores-twice-including-ot-winner-in-brampton
Saginaw Spirit, “Nikita Klepov to make NHL Debut with Anaheim Ducks Wednesday night,” Oct. 7, 2026, https://chl.ca/ohl-spirit/article/nikita-klepov-to-make-nhl-debut-with-anaheim-ducks-wednesday-night
The Associated Press, “Evan Bouchard continues historic start, Oilers pummel Ducks in 2nd period in 5-2 win,” via ESPN, Oct. 8, 2026, https://www.espn.com/nhl/recap?gameId=401892456
Saginaw Spirit, team site schedule and OHL scoreboard, accessed Oct. 8, 2026, https://saginawspirit.com/
Photo: Jfvoll, “Dow Event Center - Interior,” Jan. 31, 2016, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dow_Event_Center_-_Interior.JPG
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