Sports
Plymouth Whalers Roll Over London Knights, 6-1
The Whalers have eight players who have scored 10 goals or more this season.
The Plymouth Whalers defeated the London Knights, 6-1, aided by Alex Aleardi's three goals and two assists. The Ontario Hockey League game was played before 3,254 Wednesday afternoon on Kid's Day at Compuware Arena.
Aleardi's lineman, Jamie Devane, scored a goal and two assists and Stefan Noesen scored two goals.
Wednesday's game featured the two top teams in the Ontario Hockey League with both teams having several players away at the World Junior Championships and World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. Plymouth (now 23-9-2-1, 49 points) moved to within two points of London (25-7-0-1, 51 points) at the top of Western Conference standings.
The Whalers continue to lead the West Division and are now six points ahead of Sarnia (19-11-1-4, 43 points).
Plymouth goaltender Matt Mahalak stopped 36-of-37 shots to lower his goals against average to 2.04 and raise his save percentage to 0.937. Mahalak is second in the OHL in both catagories and has a 10-4-0-0 won-loss record.
Aleardi now has 20 goals this season, Noesen 13 and Devane 10. The Whalers have eight players who have scored 10 goals or more this season - Aleardi (20), Rickard Rakell (17), Mitchell Heard (16), Garrett Meurs (15), J.T. Miller and Noesen (13 each), Andy Bathgate (12) and Devane (10).
Jared Knight scored the lone London goal, his 17th of the year.
Plymouth remains home on Friday night, hosting the Saginaw Spirit (14-18-0-2) at 7:05 p.m. at Compuware Arena Listen live, starting with pre-game chatter, at 6:45 p.m., at 88.1FM, WSDP.
