* Janus returns: Rookie goaltender Jaroslav Janus started against Saginaw on Saturday, his first game action since last weekend. He spent most of this past week in Toronto finalizing immigration paperwork.
“I missed the team. I missed practice,” he said before the game. “When I’m here, I’m happy.”
He skated once all week – an impromptu workout on Thursday with a few amateur players in a small Brampton, Ontario, rink. “One was good,” Janus said with a smile. “One had a good shot.” Janus rejoined the club on Friday in Kitchener, serving as rookie Shane Owen’s backup.
* Hanging tough: The club’s young defense will spend at least the next month without veterans Josh Kidd and Mitch Gaulton. That puts more pressure on 2007 OHL draft picks Tyler Hostetter and David Shields. “It’s going to be tough,” Hostetter said. “We have to work as hard as we can and improve.”
Hostetter pointed to playing simple hockey. “Don’t try to do too much,” he said. “(We have to) do the little stuff to try to help the team get better.”
* Feeling at home: Saginaw center Tyler Murovich, a Mt. Lebanon native, has much experience playing at Tullio Arena. He played many games in the rink from his youth league to his high school days at Mt. Lebanon High School. “It’s like a home game,” said Murovich, who expected to have at least 40 family members and friends at Saturday’s game.
He left the Pittsburgh area before last season to play for the USHL’s Chicago Steel. That led to a scholarship offer from Western Michigan University, said Murovich, who turns 18 on Dec. 4.
But after visiting with Spirit officials and the city of Saginaw, Murovich decided that the OHL was “the right fit for me,” he said. “It will help my career (and to) play at the next level.”
* Around the rink: The Otters scratched Kidd (pelvis), Gaulton (left elbow) and left wing Michael Liambas (sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee). … Saginaw scratched defensemen Christopher Breen and Adam Comrie and goaltender Joseph Lepera.

– Victor Fernandes