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Whalers whitewash the Soo

March 5, 2010 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Plymouth Whalers News Release


PLYMOUTH - Although the Ontario Hockey League playoffs officially start in two weeks, most OHL teams are already in playoff mode. Cases in point are the Plymouth Whalers and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, who could very well meet in the first round of the playoffs and played tonight at Compuware Arena.

In fact, if the OHL playoffs started now, Plymouth and the Soo would meet in the first found with the Whalers receiving home ice advantage.

Tonight, Plymouth built a 1-0 lead after one period and pulled away with a pair of third period goals to defeat the Soo, 3-0, before another good crowd of 3,067 at Compuware Arena.

Plymouth snapped a three-game winning streak and improves to 37-25-0-2, good for 76 points and fourth place in the OHL's Western Conference playoff race. Sault Ste. Marie had a four-game winning streak snapped and is now 34-25-1-4, good for 73 points.

Whalers goaltender Matt Hackett stopped 25 shots en route to his third shutout of the season and fifth in his career, all with Plymouth. Hackett has now played in 138 Plymouth games in his career, one shy of the tying Whalers all-time career record for games played by a goaltender. Rob Zepp (1998-01) currently holds the record with 139 games played.

Tyler Seguin scored a goal and two assists to eclipse the 100-point plateau this season. Seguin now has 47 goals and 55 assists for 102 points in 59 games. His goal at 8:06 of the first period gave Plymouth a 1-0 lead and enabled Seguin to become the 15th player in Whalers history to score 100 points in a season.

Robbie Czarnik scored twice in the third period and now has 14 goals and 28 assists for 42 points in 39 games since joining the Whalers from the University of Michigan in late November.

Seguin and Czarnik were helped by Austin Mattson, who was a late addition to the lineup after Phil McRae was scratched after the pre-game skate. Mattson was inserted on the line with Seguin and Czarnik and contributed an assist and was +2 on the evening.

While Seguin, Czarnik and Mattson supplied the offense, Hackett and his blue line group grow stronger as the game wore on. Sault Ste. Marie had its most sustained offensive pressure in the first period, but not much from that point on.

Plymouth penalty killers shut down all five Soo power plays in the game.

"It got kind of boring in the second period," Hackett admitted. "But our guys kept everything to the outside like they always do and I saw everything well tonight."

Seguin's 100th point and 47th goal of the season came at 8:06 of the first period and was started by an excellent play by second star Ryan Hayes. Hayes carried the puck to the Soo high slot, toe-dragged to the hash marks, faked a shot and dished the puck to the left wing side of the ‘Hounds net to Seguin, who scored on the empty net.

Although the second period was scoreless, Plymouth started winning battles for pucks and outshot Sault Ste. Marie, 12-9, in the frame.

Czarnik scored on the first shift of the third period, giving the Whalers a 2-0 lead just 0:09 into the period, when his shot trickled off Soo goaltender Robin Lehner and over the goal line. The goal just missed tying the Whalers record for the fastest goal at the start of a period, set by John Armstrong on Nov. 5, 2005 in Guelph when he scored at 0:08 into the third period.

Czarnik completed the scoring at 8:48 of the third period, converting a rebound to give the Whalers a 3-0 lead.

Plymouth outshot Sault Ste. Marie, 32-25.

The Whalers have four games remaining in the regular season and want to use the remaining games as momentum towards the playoffs.

"We want to hit the playoffs in full stride," said James Livingston. "We want to get all the little bugs out and get ready to go for the first round."

Tonight's victory is a good start in a positive direction.

Plymouth remains home Saturday at 7:05pm at Compuware Arena against Saginaw (6:45pm, WSDP 88.1FM).

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 5, 2010


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