Windsor Beats Plymouth, 3-2, in Saturday Shootout

Photos by Rena Laverty - 1-The Whalers in their jerseys for Military Appreciation Weekend; 2-Alex Nedeljkovic makes one of his 41 saves on Friday; 3-Will Bitten scores on Saturday; 4-Gianluca Curcuruto blocks a shot with his skate,

PLYMOUTH - For a time in the first period of Saturday’s Plymouth Whalers-Windsor Spitfires game at Compuware Arena, it looked like the Whalers were going to run the Spits right into M-14.

Plymouth had sustained pressure in the Windsor zone for the entire first 20 minutes, outshooting the Spits, 22-5. But Windsor goaltender Brendan Johnston was outstanding, allowing just one goal to Connor Chatham while making several spectacular saves.

Johnston’s work backstopped Windsor to a 3-2 shootout win over the Whalers before 2,506 at Compuware Arena.

SCORESHEET

The Whalers – now 16-27-2-2, good for 36 points and chasing Saginaw for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference race – picked up no ground on the Spirit. Saginaw (now 22-23-3-1, 47 points), lost, 5-4 in overtime, to Belleville.

Windsor is also chasing Saginaw for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference and improves to 20-25-1-1, good for 42 points and five points behind Saginaw.

After the first period, the Spitfires slowly got back into the game, getting second period goals from Lucas Venuto (16th) and Hayden McCool (14th).

Besides Chatham’s first period goal (his 11th), the Whalers got a goal from Will Bitten (11th) in the second period. Bitten’s power play goal at 11:52 gave Plymouth a 2-1 lead, but McCool tied the game at 19:31 of the second period, working out of the right corner in the Plymouth zone, working through traffic in front of Plymouth goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic and scoring from just outside the blue ice.

Windsor outshot Plymouth, 10-8, in the third period, but the game remained tied.

Both teams had five shots in the overtime and several good chances to win in overtime. The Spitfires rang a shot off the post and Jamie Lewis and McCool had chances but were stopped by Nedeljkovic. Mitch Jones had two excellent opportunities to score but was stopped by Johnston.

Venuto scored the only goal in the shootout, faking to the hashmarks and waiting before snapping the shot in tight past Nedeljkovic.

Plymouth hits the road next week, playing in Sudbury on Wednesday (7 pm, 88.1FM WSDP) and North Bay on Thursday (7 pm, 88.1FM) before returning home next Saturday to host Owen Sound at 7:05 pm at Compuware Arena (7 pm, CN-900 and 88.1FM WSDP).

Friday - Plymouth 3, Belleville 0: Not only was Plymouth Whalers goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic sharp with 41 saves in a 3-0 victory over the Belleville Bulls on Friday at Compuware Arena, he gave a sharp interview to the Whalers television broadcast.

In one of the better lines of the season during the post-game show, Nedeljkovic said, “I watched a lot of Martin Brodeur this week during his retirement and press conference. You could say I channeled my inner-Brodeur tonight.”

Inner-Brodeur is good, but outer-Nedeljkovic is pretty good most nights and he posted his fourth shutout of the season and seventh of his career.

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