Whalers Beat Saginaw, 5-4, in Sunday Shootout

On Faith and Family Day on Sunday at , the Plymouth Whalers had every reason to be tired.

The Whalers played their third game this afternoon in less than three days.  And after losing 8-6 on Friday in London and 6-5 Saturday night against Kitchener - both games with just ten forwards and seven defensemen - perhaps Plymouth was fatigued in spite of getting close to a full lineup back today against Saginaw.

Still, the Whalers found a way to win, battling to a 5-4 shootout victory against the Spirit.

First star Stefan Noesen and Alex Aleardi scored in the shootout for Plymouth and second star Matt Mahalak stopped two of three Saginaw shots in the session.

Earlier, the Whalers received goals from Noesen (25th and fourth goal of the weekend), Cutis Crombeen (2nd, both goals this weekend), Danny Vanderwiel (5th and fourth goal this weekend) and Jamie Devane (18th).  Mahalak battled Saginaw all afternoon long, stopping 53-of-57 shots in 65 minutes to improve his record to 17-7-0-0.

Terry Trafford (6th), Brandon Saad (21st), Sam Povorozniuk (2nd) and Josh Shalla (30th) scored for Saginaw in regulation and Vince Trocheck scored the lone Spirit goal in the shootout.

Plymouth breaks a two-game losing streak and is now 36-15-2-1, good for 75 points, first place in the West Division and second seed in the Western Conference.  The Whalers have beaten Saginaw seven straight times this season, this last two victories in shootouts.

Saginaw - winner of seven of 10 games coming into today's game - is now 25-23-0-6, good for 56 points and sixth seed in the Western Conference playoff race.

Noesen - on his birthday - was asked if fatigue was a factor in today's game.

"Absolutely," he said. "We played two hard games the past couple of
nights and the bounces did not go our way. We need to bear down on our
defensive game. We gave up 18 goals over three games and that is not
acceptable. We'll get back to work in practice about that this week."

The Whalers switched forwards combinations and change proved to be good as Plymouth took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Noesen at 5:16 and Crombeen at 7:41.  A new line of Noesen-Cody Payne and J.T. Miller clicked on both of the goals.

Miller - hard on the puck all day - took the puck from a Saginaw defender and found Noesen at the left circle.  Noesen wanted to go high, but scored five-hole on Saginaw goaltender Jake Paterson to give Plymouth a 1-0 lead.

"We worked hard," Noesen said of his new line.  "We had composure.  J.T.'s a phenomenal player - he sees guys well and has a bomb of a shot.  We just work off each other and it works well."

The line clicked to give Plymouth a 2-0 lead on Crombeen's goal, winning battles in the Saginaw zone for an extended period and Miller - at the right circle in the zone Saginaw zone - found Crombeen breaking in from the point and hit him with a cross-ice pass.  Crombeen made no mistake with a shot from the left circle.

Trafford cut the Plymouth lead to 2-1 at 13:30, using his speed to work to the left circle before beating Mahalak with a hard shot.

The second period was wide open, with both teams registering 20 shots apiece.  Devane batted home his own rebound at 0:31 of the period to give the Whalers a 3-1 lead.  Saginaw cut the Plymouth lead to 3-2 when Saad scored at the hashmarks through traffic at 10:30.  Plymouth came back immediately at 11:56 and Vanderwiel's goal on a rebound on the right side of the Saginaw goal, set up by Aleardi from the left goal line.  Povorozniuk scored on a solo rush at 15:40, cutting from the left to his right in the Plymouth zone and snapping a shot past Mahalak at 15:40.

Saginaw outshot Plymouth, 18-6, in the third period. Shalla scored the only goal of the third period to tie the game at 11:34, capping off extended pressure in the Plymouth zone by snapping a shot from the hashmarks (pass by Saad from the left wing) to tie the game.

Plymouth outshot Saginaw, 6-3 in the overtime, but the game came down to a shootout.

Noesen and Aleardi - both right handed shots - scored on backhand shots, top-shelf. Mahalak made stops on Jimmy Lodge (stopped a backhand at the left post) and Saad (stuff again at the left post) sandwiched around Trocheck's goal from the hashmarks.

"He was phenomenal again," Noesen said of Mahalak.  "On some of those goals, he really couldn't do anything about them.  He held us in the game and he's the reason why we came out of here with a victory."

The Whalers play in Windsor on Thursday before returning home on Friday against Owen Sound at 7:05 p.m. and on Saturday against Guelph at 7:05 p.m.