Photos - by Rena Laverty - (1) Whalers cleaning up the Teddy Bears. (2) London goaltender Tyler Parsons stops Plymouth’s Matt Mistele. (3) First round National Hockey League picks Max Domi of London (Arizona) and Sonny Milano (Columbus)
PLYMOUTH - Sometime in the future, the Plymouth Whalers will look at the recent segment of games in a far different light.
It’s never fun to lose in the Ontario Hockey League. It’s tough to make progress in the best junior league in the world when a team is missing seven regulars - but that’s what the Whalers are facing now.
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In the harsh crucible of competiton in the OHL, the Whalers will be better in the near future.
Plymouth lost their fourth straight game on Saturday, 3-1 to the London Knights, before 2,425 at Compuware Arena.
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Playing without injured Alex Peters, Connior Chatham, Victor Crus Rydberg, Bryce Yetman, Danny Vanderwiel, Yannick Rathgeb and Gianluca Curcuruto, the Whalers battled London straight up for 60 minutes, only to fall to 10-16-1-1.
Max Domi paced the London attack, scoring all three goals, the final on the empty net after the Whalers pulled goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in the final 1:15. Domi - a first round pick of the Arizona Coyotes - has 15 goals this season with 38 assists for 52 points in 26 games.
Christian Dvorak and Mitch Marner recorded two assists each for London.
London broke a four-game losing streak to improve to 16-01-0-2.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: Ryan Pyette. London Free Press.
After a scoreless first period, Domi scored twice in the second period. He was the late men on Dvorak’s rush to the Plymouth goal to score at 5:24 and then wired a shot off Nedeljkovic at 12:37 to give London a 2-0 lead after forty minutes.
Plymouth outshot London, 9-6, in the third period and finally broke through on the power play at 12:08 of the third period on Dunda’s shot through traffic just outside the London blue ice.
The Whalers continued to pressure and pulled Nedeljkovic with 1:15 left, but Domi iced the game with an empty net goal at 19:28.
London outshot Plymouth, 32-25.
The Whalers hit the road in games on Wednesday in Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday (7 pm, 88.1FM WSDP), and in London on Friday (7:30 pm, 88.1FM WSDP) before returning home next Saturday to host Guelph at 7:05 pm at Compuware Arena (7 pm, CN-900, 88.1FM WSDP).
