Thursday, December 29, 2005

Whalers win, Spirit lose Wednesday

The Plymouth Whalers rode goalie Justin Peters (below) and their power play to a 5-1 victory over the Windsor Spitfires before a sellout crowd of 3,715 Wednesday afternoon at the Compuware Sports Arena.

Plymouth remains in first place in the OHL's West Division ahead of the Saginaw Spirit, who lost 4-3 last night at home to Erie.

Peters, obtained by Plymouth on Dec. 9 in a trade from Toronto, ran his record since coming to the Whalers to 4-1-0-0 with 37 saves. Evan Brophey, Dan Collins, Zack Shepley (first of the year), Jared Boll and Tom Sestito all scored for Plymouth. Defensemen Mike Letizia and Wes Cunningham, in his first game back from an ankle injury, each added two assists for the Whalers.

Plymouth went 3-for-5 on the power play while killing all four Windsor power plays.

The Whalers are off until Friday night when they host Erie.

Meanwhile, up in Saginaw, the Spirit blew a 3-1 lead and fell, 4-3. The team honored Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman (top of page) before the game and the nine-time Stanley Cup-winning coach met Spirit fans, signed autographs and participated in a ceremonial puck drop before the contest.

Anthony Soboczynski, Jesse Gimblett and Jamie Klie (first this year) staked Saginaw to a 3-1 lead, but the Otters rallied for three in the final two periods.

Ryan Daniels turned back 31 shots in the game.

The Spirit resume action Friday night in Sudbury against the Wolves, the first game of a two-game Eastern Conference road trip.

Whalers photo by Walt Dmoch/Plymouth Whalers.

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