SATURDAY WRAP-UP
Whalers drop shootout to Brampton
The third time was not a charm on Saturday night for the Plymouth Whalers.
For the third straight Saturday night, the Whalers battled the opposition to a 2-2 draw through 65 minutes. The Whalers won the last two Saturday nights by identical 3-2 shootout victories – Nov. 5 against Toronto and Nov. 12 against London. But last Saturday, the Brampton Battalion marched home with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Whalers in a game played before a season-high crowd of 3,724 at the Compuware Sports Arena.
Howie Martin’s shootout goal on Brampton’s third shot a give the Battalion a 2-0 lead and the victory after the Whalers did not score on their two shots.
The game was tied or never more than a one-goal differential the entire way. Brampton’s Wojtek Wolski and Plymouth’s Gino Pisellini traded first period goals and the Whalers’ Tom Sestito and the Battalion’s Luke Lynes traded goals in the second period.
The goaltenders took over the rest of the way through the third period and in the overtime. Plymouth’s Ryan Nie stopped 38 of 40 Brampton shots and Brampton’s Daren Machesney stopped 36 of 38 Plymouth shots through 65 minutes of play.
Wolski scored Brampton’s first goal in the shootout and then Martin sealed the victory.
Plymouth (12-7-1-2) is off until Wednesday night when they host the Sarnia Sting at 7:30 pm in a game broadcast on Comcast Local. The Whalers then play in Sault Ste. Marie on Friday before returning home Saturday to host Peterborough.
Saginaw upends Frontenacs
The Saginaw Spirit returned to their winning ways with a 5-2 win over the Kingston Frontenacs Saturday night in Saginaw. Saginaw's power play energized the Saginaw win with three of the goals coming with an extra attacker.
Saginaw opened scoring in the seventh minute of the first period when Patrick Asselin found the net on the power play, from Michal Birner and Matt Corrente.
The Spirit jumped ahead 2-0 early in the second period when forward Chris Chappell scored his first OHL goal, from Jack Combs.
"It was really a pass," Chappell said of the goal. "But it hit someone and went in."
The Spirit extended their lead to 3-0 a minute-and-a-half later, when forward Zack Torquato scored from Jesse Gimblett and Tom Pyatt. Torquato's ninth goal ties him with Pyatt and Jean-Michel Rizk for the most goals by an underage player in a Spirit uniform.
Kingston broke the Ryan Daniels shutout bid just past the ten-minute mark of the second when Kingston captain Adam Nemeth scored. The Fronts cut the Spirit lead to 3-2 four minutes later on a power-play goal from Ben Shutron.
Saginaw responded two minutes after that with Asselin's second goal of the game, from Combs and Corrente.
"We played with more intensity tonight," Combs said of the win. "We battled when we had to and kept the lead in front of us."
The goal marked Asselin's third multiple goal game of the season.
The Spirit and Fronts battled through nearly 18 minutes of scoreless hockey in the third period, when Kingston pulled goaltender Daryl Borden. But Saginaw converted on the empty net just seven seconds later on a Birner goal assisted by Spirit captain Patrick McNeill and Gimblett.
Daniels turned back 36 shots in the effort. The win takes Saginaw's record to 14-7-0-0, with 28 points, good for first place in the OHL West Division. Saginaw resumes action Wednesday versus the defending Memorial Cup champion London Knights at 7:11pm at the Dow Event Center.
North Stars swept by Texarkana
The Traverse City North Stars finally penetrated the stout Texarkana defense on Saturday night, but didn't take advantage of seven power play opportunities as the Bandits put the finishing touches on a two-game sweep of the Stars with a 6-4 triumph at Centre ICE arena.
Traverse City fell below the .500 mark at 9-10-2 and continued to experience a power play power outage, going 0-for-7 on Saturday after an 0-for-8 showing on Friday. In fact, the North Stars haven't scored in their last 17 stints with a man advantage or better.
After Colby Jones logged the only goal of the first period on Saturday, Jonathan Juliano answered for the hosts 2:12 into the second stanza with his sixth goal of the year. However, Nic Polaski scored a goal at 7:12, sandwiched between Pat Knowlton goals at 2:52 and 8:41 and the visitors had built a 4-1 advantage.
Jared Mullen scored the first of his two goals near the midway point of the second period, Aaron Lewicki recorded his ninth of the season to open the final session with what proved to be the game-winner.
A two-goal burst began at 12:08 when TC's Steven Oleksy found twine and 42 seconds later Mullen lit the lamp again to pull the Stars to within a goal at 5-4. Justin Johnston pulled the plug on the comeback a little over a minute later, however, and Traverse City ingested its third consecutive loss.
Sault Ste. Marie product Miles Williams accrued 27 saves on 31 Traverse City shots, while Jeremy Kaleniecki patrolled the pipes for the North Stars to the tune of 31 saves.
Traverse City plays host to the Team USA U-18 squad in a Thanksgiving Eve affair on Wednesday at Centre ICE. Face-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. with warm-ups at 7.
Alpena downed in Mahoning Valley
Zach Barron and Anthony McIntyre each had a goal and an assist, but the Alpena IceDiggers lost to the Mahoning Valley Phantoms, 5-2. Phil Greer stopped 43 shots in the loss.
Alpena (5-15-3) currently sits in last place in the NAHL's North Division and hosts Mahoning Valley this Friday and Saturday. Game time both nights is 7:00 p.m.
SUNDAY ACTION
The Northern Michigan Black Bears withstood a third-period charge from the Soo Thunderbirds and held on for a 4-3 win on the road Sunday night.
Sean Farley, James Ciotti, Anthony Perdicaro and Jake Watchorn scored for the Black Bears while Tony Stoehr finished with 27 saves in net.
Northern Michigan (12-7-0-1) travels to Sudbury Wednesday evening.
CSHL SCORES
Saturday
at Flint Jr. Generals 6, Quad City Express 3
at Motor City Chiefs 5, Grand Rapids Jr. Owls 3
at Metro Jets 5, Peoria Mustangs 3
Sunday
at Michigan Ice Dogs 3, Quad City 2
Grand Rapids 4 at Motor City 3
at Flint 9, Peoria 4
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