PLYMOUTH - Work as an hourly employee, and overtime usually means time-an-a-half and a better paycheck.
Play overtime in hockey and teams get one point, but have an opportunity for two.
Zach Lorentz's power play goal at 1:20 of overtime lifted the Plymouth Whalers to a 4-3 victory over the Saginaw Spirit before a good crowd of 3,206 on Saturday night at Compuware Arena.
The Whalers improve to 3-5-0-0. Saginaw is 3-4-1-0.
Ryan Hartman set up Lorentz for the game-winner, passing the puck from left circle in Spirit territory and finding Lorentz just outside the right post of the Saginaw net. Lorentz re-directed the puck past Saginaw goaltender Nikita Serebryakov to start the celebration.
The Plymouth power play in overtime was set up when Saginaw defenseman Justin Sefton was penalized for slashing Carter Sandlak at 19:41.
The Whalers were outshot, 41-25, through regulation time with Plymouth goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic emerging as the game's first star. Although Saginaw carried the play for parts of the game, the Whalers won the special teams game, going two-for-four on the power play while killing off all three Saginaw power plays - including a five-minute major late in the first period given to the Whalers' Matt Mistele for a slew-foot on Saginaw's Jimmy Lodge.
Plymouth played the game minus the injured Victor Crus Rydberg and Connor Chatham. With Mistele ejected, the other Whalers battled an older Saginaw team throughout the entire 61:20.
Plymouth scored on its' first and third shot of the game to build a 2-0 lead through the first half of the first period. Hartman held the puck at the right circle in the Saginaw zone, skated to his left and beat Serebryakov at 8:01 with rookie defenseman Mathieu Henderson drawing his first OHL assist. All Plymouth pups staked the Whalers to a 2-0 lead at 9:50 when Francesco Vilardi banked the puck off Serebryakov with fellow rookies Bryce Yetman and Yannick Rathgeb assisting.
Hartman scored on the power play at 10:56 of the second period with a shot in traffic from the hashmarks to give the Whalers a 3-0 lead.
But Saginaw came on in the second period, outshooting Plymouth, 19-6. Nedeljkovic was sharp, but Eric Locke scored his first of the season at 13:58 on a partial breakaway to cut the Plymouth lead to 3-1.
The Spirit continued to press in the the third period and tied the game on Nick Moutrey's wrap-around from behind the net to the right post at 9:17 and Sean Callaghan's blast from the right point at 12:38.
But Sefton's late penalty set up the Plymouth power play and Hartman and Lorentz made no mistake.
Plymouth plays on the road Friday in Sault Ste. Marie (7 pm, www.plymouthwhalers.com) and hosts Kitchener on Saturday at 7:05 pm at Compuware Arena.
