Culina staying with OHL Spitfires


By
January 6, 2016

Goalie Mario Culina will remain in the Ontario Hockey League with the Windsor Spitfires and will not be returning to the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, HockeyNewsNorth.com has confirmed.

The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Culina, who has a 1997 birth date, originally signed with the Spitfires as a free agent out of training camp last fall. But before playing a regular-season game for the Spitfires, Culina injured his knee and once he was healthy, was subsequently returned to the Thunderbirds, who he had back-stopped to the 2014-2015 NOJHL championship.

Culina had a 9-0 record with a 1.43 goals against average and .928 save percentage with the Thunderbirds this 2015-2016 season before he was asked to return to the Spitfires last weekend after a goalie spot opened up on the Windsor roster.

After being summoned from the Thunderbirds, Culina started back-to-back games for the Spitfires on the weekend and won both starts, posting a 1.50 goals against average and .933 save percentage.

In order to re-acquire Culina’s services from the Soo, the Spitfires compensated the Thunderbirds financially, HockeyNewsNorth.com has confirmed through OHL sources.

Meanwhile, Thunderbirds president-director of hockey operations Kevin Cain told HockeyNewsNorth.com that he is actively pursuing a veteran starting goalie prior to the upcoming Canadian Jr. Hockey League trade deadline.


What you think about “Culina staying with OHL Spitfires”

  1. Good for Culina, bad for the Thunderbirds leaving them scrambling to fix a problem that was self inflicted …….like shooting yourself in the foot. Time for Kevin to take back the job as Gm

    1. The person that traded the two top goaltenders for the Thunderbirds, should lose his job as a manager and allow the coach to make those decisions .

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