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Sports

Whalers Come Back Three Times, Beat London in Double OT to Even Series

Rickard Rakell's game-winner finishes longest game in Whalers' playoff history.

LONDON, ON - Rickard Rakell's goal at 10:06 of double overtime gave the Plymouth Whalers a dramatic, come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the London Knights to even the Ontario Hockey League's Rogers Western Conference Championship series at one-game-each.

Games 3 and 4 move to Compuware Arena on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:05 pm.

Sunday's game is the longest overtime in Whalers playoff history. 

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On March 22, 1997, Mike Morrone scored at 10:02 of double overtime for the Whalers in a 4-3 win against Joe Thornton and the Sault Ste. Marie Gryehounds.  The game was played at Compuware Arena.

The game-winning goal came on a Plymouth power play after London's Alex Broadhurst was called for hooking at 9:40 of the second overtime - the first power play Plymouth received in overtime. Earlier, the Whalers killed off three London power plays in the overtime.

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Plymouth defenseman Gianluca Curcuruto held the puck at the left point and fed it to Garrett Meurs, who got a shot from the left wing and - after the puck squirted through on the right side of the net - Rakell snapped home a quick backhand for his fourth goal of the playoffs past London goaltender Anthony Stolarz.

AUDIO - Listen to Rakell's game-winning goal.

Earlier, Plymouth right wing and first star Tom Wilson scored the first three Whaler  goals with his first OHL playoff hat trick (4-5-6) and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 61-of-64 London shots as the game's third star.  Curcuruto added three assists for Plymouth.

Bo Horvat (3), Chris Tierney (5) and Max Domi (6) replied for London, who had leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 only to see the Whalers come back three times.

"Obviously, it was a great hockey game for everybody," said Plymouth head coach Mike Vellucci.  "It was end-to-end and a lot of chances.  I thought our guys dug deep.  When we got down, we kept battling.  I thought it was only fitting that we scored on the power play after killing off so many (Plymouth went 8-for-10 on the penalty kill). Our penalty killers did a great job."

"I didn't come in here thinking I was going to get a hat trick," Wilson said.  "I was just trying to play hard and play for the guys.  I got a couple of good bounces and had a give-away on the penalty kill that led to a goal.  I wanted to get back out there and do my best to get it back.  I was able to do that in the last minute."

Wilson's hat trick goal came in the final minute of regulation with Nedeljkovic on the bench and the Whalers utilizing an extra attacker with London leading, 3-2.  With the Knights blocking several pucks in their defensive zone, the Whalers battled to keep the play alive and Connor Carrick - at the right point - found Wilson at the left hashmark.  Wilson fanned on the first shot, but snapped home a rising shot with authority to tie the game at 3-3 at 19:12.

AUDIO - Listen to Wilson's equalizer.

Although Plymouth outshot London, 8-1, over the first eight minutes oif the game, London took a 1-0 lead when Horvat skated from behind the Whalers net to beat Nedeljkovic at 11:35.

Wilson tied the game for the Whalers at 7:38 of the second period, deflecting Curcuruto's shot from the left point past Stolarz.  London took the lead again at at 2-1 on a power play when Tierney threaded a shot from the right circle past Nedeljkovic, who appeared to be screened.

In spite of trailing, the Whalers did a lot of good things in the second period.  Curcuruto rang a shot off the cross-bar, the Whalers just missed on other chances while Stolarz made saves on other opportunities.  

Vellucci said the Whalers took a positive approach in spite of the near-misses and potential frustration of trailing for much of Game 2.

 “I think we stayed positive on all those (near misses),” Vellucci said. “You can get real negative or you can get real excited and we were getting crossbar, posts, missed the empty net. You can go on and on.

“Between the second and third period, we talked about it. Which way do we want to go? Do we want to be positive and continue to get those chances or do we want to be negative and the guys in the locker-room stayed positive and stuck together.”

Down, 2-1 in the third period, Wilson tied the game at 2-2 on a power play with a re-direct through traffic in front of the London goal off another Curcuruto shot.  But Domi struck on a London power play at 10:06 to give the Knights a 3-2 lead with a rising shot through traffic at the hash marks.

That set the stage for Wilson's equalizer in the final minute of regulation.

London carried the play for a good bit of the first overtime, outshooting Plymouth, 20-10.  Wilson was called for slashing at 0:21 of the first overtime and Plymouth killed off a too-many-men on the ice penalty at 17:22.

Inexplicably, referees Ryan Carroll and Scott Oakman called a second too-many-men-on-the-ice to the Whalers at 6:50 of the second overtime, but the Plymouth penalty killers did their job again before Broadhurst's penalty.

Rakell's game-winner stunned the sellout crowd of 9,046 at Budweiser Gardens.

Vellucci had praise for Nedeljkovic, who lowered his goals against average in the playoffs to 2.10 while raising his post-season save percentage to 0.929.

"I thought the kid played great," Vellucci said. "He's calm and collected and he made some big saves on the penalty kill.  We blocked a lot of shots in front of him."

VIDEO - See the highlights of the game.

VIDEO - See the post-game press conference.

The Whalers are now 23-13 in 36 playoff overtimes in franchise history. 

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