Photo by Rena Laverty (Top) Plymouth’s Francesco Vilardi (white jersey, 7) scores the game-winning goal in the first period Saturday night.
MEDIA ALERT - See the rebroadcast of this game on CN-900 television on Sunday at 3 pm, Monday at 7 pm, Tuesday at 9 am or next Friday at noon.
After losing, 4-2, on Friday in Guelph, the three-and-a-half hour bus ride from Guelph back to Plymouth was anything but pleasant for Whalers head coach Don Elland and assistant John Vigilante.
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They were oblivious to the pouring rain outside on Highway 401 and spent most of the trip watching video of the loss to the Storm in a game in which Plymouth had a 2-0 lead early in the second period, but let a close-to-certain two points slip away.
But the pain of examining that video help gain two points Saturday night as the Whalers played with purpose and energy in a 3-1 victory over London in an Ontario Hockey League game played at Compuware Arena.
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Danny Vanderwiel, Francesco Vilardi and Mathew Campagna scored first period goals and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 33-of-34 shots to backstop the Whalers to the win.
A good crowd of 3,140 saw the Whalers improve to 2-1-1-0, while London is 1-3-0-0.
Chandler Yakimowicz scored the lone London goal, his first of the year, at 5:05 of the first period. But the Whalers came back later in the period to lead on goals by Vanderwiel (first of the year at 6:45), Vilardi (first of the year at 7:26) and a power play goal by Campagna (team-leading fourth of the year at 13:39).
Los Angeles Kings draft Matt Mistele contributed two assists for Plymouth.
A key to the victory was a complete change of the Plymouth forward units, which started one way at 3 pm but were were overhauled by 5:30 pm. As it turned out, Danny Vanderwiel played with Victor Crus Rydberg and Connor Sills; Mathew Campagna centered Nicholas Caamano and Connor Chatham; Will Bitten centered for Liam Dunda and Cullen Mercer; Francesco Vilardi centered Matt Mistele and Vince Scognamiglio.
More changes were made as the game unfolded.
The final forty minutes were scoreless but not uneventful. Nedeljkovic – the current OHL Goaltender of the Year – was solid the rest of the way. Trialing, 3-1 in the third period, London head coach Dale Hunter pulled goaltender Tyler Parsons for the extra attacker with three minutes remaining. But the Knights could get no closer.
AUDIO - First star Alex Nedeljkovic talks about the victory.
“Our players are starting to buy into the system,” said Vigilante. “It’s a slow process and its taking some time, but we’re making good progress. We’ve taken five-out-of-eight points against four quality teams. That’s something to build on.”
Plymouth hits the road next week, playing in Belleville on Wednesday and Oshawa on Friday before retuuring home to play Peterborough next Saturday at 7:05 pm at Compuware Arena.
