Sellout Crowd Sees Plymouth Whalers pitch Second Straight Shutout, 4-0, over Saginaw

March 6, 2010 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Plymouth Whalers News Release


PLYMOUTH - The Plymouth Whalers came into this weekend determined to get into good habits and set up positive momentum for the playoffs. Mission accomplished.

The Whalers defeated the Saginaw Spirit, 4-0, in an Ontario Hockey League game played before a sellout crowd of 3,662 Saturday night at Compuware Arena. On Friday, Plymouth shut out the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 3-0.

Plymouth improves to 38-25-0-2, good for 78 points and fourth place in the Western Conference playoff race. The Whalers have a five-point lead on fifth-place Sault Ste. Marie (34-25-1-4, 73 points) for the final playoff spot that assures home ice in the first round of the upcoming OHL playoffs.

Saginaw is now 32-27-4-2, good for 70 points. With tonight's loss, the Spirit dropped to seventh place in the OHL Western Conference playoff race when Erie (32-27-5-2, 71 points) moved to sixth with a 5-4 overtime victory over Owen Sound tonight.

Plymouth goaltender Matt Hackett stopped 31 shots as the game's first star on Saturday night for his second straight shutout and sixth of his OHL career. Tyler Brown (13th), Austin Levi (3rd), Austin Mattson (3rd) and Robbie Czarnik (15th) scored for the Whalers, with Czarnik adding two assists and Tyler Seguin three assists in the victory.

Hackett's consecutive shutouts are the first of his OHL career. The last Plymouth goaltender to pitch consecutive shutouts is Jeremy Smith, who shutout Niagara and Mississauga Nov. 1-9, 2007. In addition, in playing tonight Hackett tied Rob Zepp (1998-01) for the franchise lead in 139 games played by a goaltender in a Plymouth career.

"I've never done this before," Hackett said about consecutive shutouts. "Tonight was the same thing as last night - our "D" did their job and that made my job easy. I had maybe one tough save to make in the second period, but other than that, our guys did a great job in front of me."

While Hackett and the Plymouth blue liners did their job, the Whalers offense pelted Saginaw goaltender Tadeas Galansky with 51 shots. Galansky - playing against the Whalers for the first time in his career during the regular season - stopped 47 of 51 as the game's third star.

Plymouth had sustained offense in the first period, outshooting Saginaw, 22-13. Galansky played well and the Whalers finally took a 1-0 lead at 14:39 when Czarnik went wide right wing in the Saginaw zone and snapped a shot towards Galansky. Brown redirected the puck in front of the net over Galansky's shoulder.

"I saw Czarnik wheeling into the (offensive) zone," Brown said of his goal. "Using my speed, I went across the middle and made sure I took away the ‘d'. So I crashed the net and tried to screen the goalie."

Plymouth took a 2-0 lead at 14:41 of the second period with an excellent elemental play. Center AJ Jenks - who excelled on face offs tonight - won a draw in the Saginaw zone from Jordan Skellett and sent the puck quickly to the right point to Levi, who wired a shot over Galansky's shoulder at 14:41.

The Whalers kept coming and scored at 17:21 of the second period to take a 3-0 lead. Seguin moved to the high slot and took a shot on Galansky, who made the save with traffic in front of him. Mattson tapped home the rebound just outside the Saginaw blue crease. Plymouth led, 3-0, after forty minutes of play.

Czarnik scored the only goal of the third period, tapping home a rebound from the left side of the Saginaw net for his third goal of the weekend at 15th of the year.

Plymouth outshot Saginaw, 51-31.

The Whalers finish up the regular season next week, playing in Windsor on Thursday (6:45pm WSDP, 88.1FM) and Friday in Sault Ste. Marie (7:15pm WSDP, 88.1FM) before playing in the regular season finale, hosting Saginaw on Sun. Mar. 14 at 2pm at Compuware Arena.

For information on Whalers ticket packages, including the Bob Evans' Great Save 4 for $44 Pack, or to plan a group event, visit plymouthwhalers.com or call 734-453-8400.



Ontario Hockey League Stories from March 6, 2010


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