Plymouth Wins First Game for Returning Coach Mike Vellucci

Published on November 14, 2008 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Plymouth Whalers News Release


PLYMOUTH - Plymouth rookie Tyler Seguin scored a goal and two assists as the game's first star and Jeremy Smith stopped 26-of-27 shots as the Plymouth Whalers spotted the Saginaw Spirit a 1-0 lead and then came back with three goals in the second period and two more in the third to defeat Saginaw, 5-1, in an Ontario Hockey League game played Friday night before a sellout crowd of 3,593 at Compuware Arena.

Plymouth won its' first game for returning coach Mike Vellucci, who is also the team's President and General Manager. Vellucci - the winningest coach in franchise history during his first term from 2001-07 - went back behind the Whalers bench Monday after Greg Stefan resigned.

Plymouth - 1-7-0-0 in its previous eight games - improves to 7-11-2-0. Saginaw is now 12-7-0-0.

Besides Seguin (who scored his second goal of the season), the Whalers also received goals from second star Tyler J. Brown (his 4th of the season), Tyler G. Brown (2), Ryan Hayes (6) and Vern Cooper (5). Jack Combs (8) scored the lone goal for Saginaw.

Although Plymouth carried much of the play through the first period in outshooting Saginaw, 13-9, Combs scored the only goal of the period when he tipped T.J. Brodie's point shot past Smith. But Plymouth came back in the second period to take their first lead of the game with a pair of goals 37 seconds apart - Tyler J. Brown (3:25 - snapping a one-timer in front of the Saginaw goal after accepting Seguin's pass from behind the net) and then Tyler G. Brown (4:02 - tip of Michal Jordan's point shot past Saginaw goaltender Edward Pasquale). Hayes gave the Whalers a 3-1 lead at 12:35 of the period after skating from the left circle and cutting across to the right in front of Pasquale and then roofing the shot under the bar.

Cooper (shot from the slot at 11:59) and Seguin (one-timer from the left circle at 13:33) completed the scoring in the third period. Plymouth outshot Saginaw, 34-27.

Vellucci said the team changed up some systems between Monday and tonight's game.

"I though our forecheck struggled a bit before," Vellucci said. "We want to get after the other team all the time and don't let them make plays. We're a big, strong, physical team and we want to go after the smaller defensemen. I thought we forechecked well tonight. I thought on our power play, our puck movement was very good with a lot of shots and a lot of traffic in front."

Plymouth received a solid performance in goal from Smith (Brownstown).

"Smith made some critical stops when it was 2-1 or 3-1," Vellucci explained. "Jeremy's a great goalie. I know he's been getting blamed lately, but I don't think we were helping him much in our own end as much as we did tonight. There were a lot of guys blocking shots and paying the price tonight. I may have counted 25 or 30 blocked shots tonight. And that's the kind of effort we need."

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from November 14, 2008


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