Owen Sound Snaps Plymouth's Winning Streak in 5-1 Victory.

The Plymouth Whalers came into Friday's game with the Owen Sound Attack with a two-game winning streak.  The Attack came into the game with a four-game winning streak. Clearly, something had to give. 

As it turned out, Owen Sound played an excellent road game en route to a 5-1 victory over the Whalers before 2,488 at Compuware Arena.

The Attack wins its fifth straight game to improve to 27-21-3-4, good for 61 points and fifth place in the Westrn Conference playoff race, one point behind fourth place Sarnia (now 28-10-1-5, 62 points), who defeated Guelph, 4-2 at Sleeman Centre on Friday.

Plymouth (now 37-16-2-1, 77 points) remains in first place in the West Division and second place in the Western Conference race.

Owen Sound took a page out the Whalers' template for success Friday for the victory.

First, the Attack received strong goaltending from third star Jordan Binnington, who stopped 33-of-34 shots.  Binnington - a St. Louis Blues draft choice and the current Vaughn CHL goaltender of the Week - has been in goal for each Owen Sound victory during their current winning streak. Owen Sound enjoyed excellent offensive balance in the victory with five different players scoring, including former Whaler Jay Gilbert (7), second-star Artur Gavrus (13), Daniel Catenacci (28), first-star Cameron Brace (23) and Mike Halmo (36). 

Michael Whaley scored the lone Plymouth goal at 13:45 of the third period, his second of the season, to ruin Binnington's shutout bid.

Owen Sound scored the only goal of the first period in outshooting Plymouth, 11-8.  Daniel Zweep - deep on the right wing in the Plymouth zone - found Gilbert breaking in the from right point and Gilbert snapped a hard shot the popped the water bottle at 16:34.

The Attack started to pull away in the second period, scoring on scrambles in the Plymouth slot area on goals by Gavrus (rebound at 4:56) and Catenacci (loose puck at the left circle at 18:41).

Brace - the current OHL Player of the Week - scored with a hard shot from the right wing over Plymouth goaltender Scott Wedgewood's shoulder at 6:25 of the third period to increase the Attack lead to 4-0. After Whaley scored the lone Plymouth goal with a shot from the left circle at 13:45, Halmo tipped in Chris Bigras' point shot at 14:19 to end the scoring.

Owen Sound outshot Plymouth, 39-34.

Plymouth is back in action tonight, hosting Guelph at 7:05 p.m. at Compuware Arena (6:45 p.m., WSDP-FM, The New 88.1).