Plymouth Whalers Earn a Point in 3-2 OT Loss to Guelph

Photos by Rena Laverty.

PLYMOUTH - Guelph Storm defenseman Zac Leslie has a history of playing well against the Plymouth Whalers at Compuware Arena.

On November 23, 2013 at Compuware Arena , Leslie scored four goals against the Whalers in a 6-2 victory for Guelph.

On Saturday night at Compuware Arena, Leslie scored just one goal against Plymouth, but it was the game-winner at 4:00 overtime as the Storm rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Whalers, 3-2 in overtime.

SCORESHEET

Guelph improves to 19-10-0-1; Plymouth is 10-18-2-1.

“I thought we played hard, I thought we played a good game,” Whalers head coach Don Elland said. “Not the result we wanted, but played better than we have been. We had lots of energy, we did a lot of good things but enough good things to get the W.”

See the rest of Tim Smith’s story in the Plymouth Observer and Eccentric.

The Whalers carefully built a 2-0 lead on a second period goal by Sonny Milano (8th) and a third period marker by Vince Scognamiglio (3rd), before Detroit Red Wings draft Tyler Bertuzzi took the game over.

With cousin Todd Bertuzzi watching, Tyler Bertuzzi scored a pair of third period goals at 9:17 and 13:17 to tie the game at 2-2 and then set up Leslie for the game-winner.

Saturday’s game marked the second straight game that the Whalers were able to ice 12 forwards and six defensemen. Plymouth had gone 16 straight games between Oct. 25 and Dec. 10 in icing a short lineup.

And even though the Whalers lost on Friday in London and tonight against a veteran Storm team, the future could be bright for Plymouth in second half when a group of players return from injury.

The Whalers continue to play without Alex Peters, Connor Chatham, Bryce Yetman, Danny Vanderwiel, Yannick Rathgeb and Gianluca Curcuruto – all out with injuries.

Liam Dunda returned from an injury last Saturday against London and is rounding into shape. He set up Scognamiglio’s goal at 5:23 of the third period with hard work along the boards in the Guelph zone. Following the puck behind the Storm goal, he fed it in front and Scognamiglio snapped it home.

Victor Crus Rydberg returned to the Plymouth lineup last night in London and recorded his fourth assist in two games on the Milano goal. Milano accepted the pass, moved to the left circle and beat Guelph goaltender Justin Nichols with the shot. Plymouth right wing Connor Sills provided an effective screen on the play.

Trailing 2-0, the Guelph line of Bertuzzi, Pius Suter and Luke Cairns went to work to tie the game. The goals were not pretty, end-to-end rushes, but were instead goals as the result of pressure and forechecking in the Plymouth zone.

If the Red Wings were looking for a blue-collar, gritty effort from Bertuzzi, that’s exactly what they saw tonight. Both goals were scored in tight from around the right circle.

On the game-winning goal, Leslie carried the puck deep into the Plymouth zone, cut to the net from the right goal line and stuffed it home through a lot of traffic in front of Plymouth goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.

Plymouth hits the road for a pair of games next week, playing in Owen Sound on Wednesday (7 pm, 88.1FM WSDP) and Thursday in Barrie (7:30 pm, 88.1FM WSDP).