Saturday, September 17, 2005

Plymouth and Saginaw both win Friday


Both the Plymouth Whalers and Saginaw Spirit won their games Friday night in Erie as part of a four-team tournament with the Toronto St. Michael's Majors and host Otters.

In the first game, Mike Letizia's goal on the Whalers' sixth shot of an overtime shootout proved to be the game-winner as Plymouth defeated Toronto, 6-5.

Plymouth came all the way back from a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead in the second period. Tom Sestito, Letizia, Steve Ward and John Vigilante then scored to lead 4-3 after two periods.

Rookie Matt Caria tied the game for Toronto at 3:53 of the third period, but Vigilante scored his second of the game at 6:16 of the period to give Plymouth a 5-4 lead. Justin Donati scored a shorthanded goal with 2:02 remaining in regulation to tie the game and set the stage for the shootout.

Ryan Nie stopped five of six shots in the shootout while Toronto goaltender Wayne Savage stopped Ondrej Otcenas, Andrew Fournier, Dan Collins (hit the post) and Chris Terry, but Vigilante and Letizia scored to give Plymouth the victory.

Plymouth outshot Toronto, 40-35. in the game.

The Spirit rode a hat trick from Ryan McDonough to eke out a 5-4 win over Erie. Matt Corrente and Chris Chappell also tallied for Saginaw, who got a 31-save performance from overage goalie Francois Thuot.

"We played an up-tempo game," said Spirit general manager and head coach Bob Mancini. "We stuck to our concepts well and a couple of individual performances helped make this win happen. It's still pre-season, but I'm pleased."

Plymouth and Saginaw will meet in the final game tonight at 8:00 p.m. Toronto and Erie play in the consolation game at 5:00 p.m.

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