Whalers Blue-Collar Effort Nets 4-2 Victory Over Top-Ranked Windsor

Published on January 30, 2009 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Plymouth Whalers News Release


PLYMOUTH - Goaltender Matt Hackett stopped 47-of-49 shots as the game's first star, Chris Terry scored a two goals with an assist as the game's second star and the penalty killers went 10-for-10 as the Plymouth Whalers built a 3-0 lead in the second period and went on the defeat the top-ranked Windsor Spitfires, 4-2, in an Ontario Hockey League game played Friday night before 2,371 at Compuware Arena.

Windsor had a 14-game winning streak snapped and has the Canadian Hockey League's best record at 43-6-0-1. The Whalers have defeated Windsor twice this season and are now 24-21-5-0.

Besides Terry's pair (team-leading 25th and 26th of the season), the Whalers also received goals from Tyler Seguin (8) and Michal Jordan (5th). Conor O'Donnell scored both Windsor goals (10-11).

The Whalers jumped off to an excellent start, getting goals from Terry at 1:12 (one-timer from the right circle) and a power play goal from Seguin (snap shot from the lower rim of the left circle) at 6:36. Windsor had a territorial advantage the rest of the period and outshot Plymouth, 15-6, in the first frame. But the Whalers penalty killers played well in the period, negating penalties to Leo Jenner for interference at 1:54, AJ Jenks for high sticking at 3:27 and Jamie Devane for slashing at 16:10.

Plymouth took a 3-0 lead at 5:37 of the second period on a goal by Jordan, which capped good Whaler pressure in the Windsor zone by the line of Terry, Matt Caria and Seguin. Caria - stationed in the right corner - found Jordan breaking into the slot and Jordan made no mistake with a low shot past Windsor goaltender Josh Unice.

Windsor continued to pressure, outshooting Plymouth, 24-8 in the second period, and got a goal back by O'Donnell at 16:51 of the period on a deflection from Ben Shutron's point shot.

The Spitfires cut the Plymouth lead to 3-2 on O'Donnell's second of the night on another deflection of Taylor Hall's shot from the left wing.

Windsor head coach Bob Boughner pulled goaltender Unice with 1:39 left, but Terry scored on the empty net with a shot from the penalty box area at 18:53. Windsor outshot Plymouth, 49-25.

""We played great," Hackett said after the game. "In the second period alone, we killed off five straight penalties. The boys battled hard and it was great to see."

"We were short handed a lot again and we did take some bad penalties at certain times," said Vellucci. "But we played hard - we blocked shots, we competed. Windsor's a great hockey team and you have to be at the top of your game to win. Our defense (Beau Schmitz, Michal Jordan, Brett Bellemore, Leo Jenner, Josh Bemis and Scott Fletcher) played really well. I thought our forwards committed for the most part to backcheck to the house and help them out. Windsor had a lot of shots, but a lot of them were from the outside and the ones that were in tight, Hack was stellar again as always."

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from January 30, 2009


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