Sellout Crowd Sees Surging Whalers Win Fifth Straight, 2-0, Over Windsor

PLYMOUTH - Matt Mahalak (Monroe) stopped 35 shots while Stefan Noesen and Jamie Devane scored first-period goals as the Plymouth Whalers won their fifth straight game, 2-0, over the Windsor Spitfires before a sellout crowd of 3,933 Saturday night at .

Plymouth improves to 42-17-2-1, good for 87 points and second seed in the Western Conference race. The Whalers in their 22-year history Friday night in a 3-2 shootout victory over Brampton.

Windsor is now 27-29-4-2 and remains in seventh spot in the Western Conference playoff race.

Jaroslav Pavelka played well in goal for Windsor as the game's second star, stopping 47-of-49 Plymouth shots. He was particularly effective in the first period when Plymouth outshot Windsor, 25-10, and threatened to make the game a rout. But Pavelka held Windsor in the game.

After Noesen (32nd) and Devane (20th) scored, Mahalak, and the Plymouth defenders and penalty killers did the job the rest of the way. Mahalak seemed to see every shot without traffic in front of him and Plymouth defenders blocked many pucks.

While Mahalak was good in posting his fourth career shutout, he was quick to credit the team playing in front of him as well.

“The boys played great tonight,” Mahalak said.  “Their goalie (Pavelka) also played very well, so I had to step up and make some saves, too. The ‘PK’ was unbelievable (five-for-five) and the boys blocked a lot of shots. It was a good team win.”

As 25 shots in a period suggests, the Whalers had sustained pressure in the first period. Noesen opened the scoring on a power play at 11:29 of the period, ripping a rising shot from the left circle that went top shelf. Then Devane scored on a wraparound at 15:30 of the period after Pavelka stoned him in front of the Windsor goal. Devane kept the play moving, skating behind the Windsor goal and scoring on the right wing side of the net.

“We outshot them, something like two-to-one in the first period,” Mahalak said. “They didn’t have many chances and we were all over them. Their goalie was the one keeping them in the game.”

As much as the Spitfires tried to get traffic in front of Mahalak, he seemed to see every shot and allowed few — if any — rebounds.

“I seemed to see every shot,” Mahalak agreed.  “Guys were clearing out lanes.  I’ve worked a lot with our goaltending coach (Stan Matwijiw). Something I’ve been struggling with is trying to find pucks through traffic. Tonight, I was able to find almost every puck. When you see the puck, you’re able to control rebounds. Everything was clicking tonight.”

As much as Windsor tried, they never seemed to get a lot of sustained offensive pressure going. The Plymouth defenders had a lot to do with that and then Mahalak was there to make the save when needed.

Plymouth outshot Windsor, 49-35.

Plymouth plays in Sarnia on Sunday afternoon (1:50 p.m., www.plymouthwhalers.com).