Andy Bathgate scored two goals with an assist, Beau Schmitz had a goal with three assists and Alex Aleardi contributed a goal and two assists as the Plymouth Whalers defeated the Niagara IceDogs, 6-3, in an Ontario Hockey League game played Friday at Compuware Arena.
Jamie Devane and Mitchell Heard also scored for the Whalers, who played their best overall game of the season in improving to 4-4-1-0. Niagara received goals from Andrew Agozzino (fourth), Fred Hamilton (sixth) and Mitchell Theoret (second) scored for Niagara, now 3-5-0-1.
The Whalers also won the battle of special teams. Plymouth penalty killers (now 36-for-40 for 90.0 percent over nine games) shut down Niagara's power play, which came into the game as the OHL top power play with a 35.6 percent success ratio. But Plymouth killed off all five Niagara power plays while scoring an power play goal of their own.
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"We won a lot of battles on the penalty-kill and worked hard," said Plymouth captain Beau Schmitz.
Schmitz gave Plymouth a 1-0 lead at 5:54 of the first period on a 5-of-3 power play. The Whalers had sustained pressure in the Niagara zone. Schmitz - stationed at the top of the right circle in the Niagara zone - found Bathgate at the right goal line. Bathgate returned the pass to Schmitz in the high slot, who made no mistake with the shot for his first goal of the year.
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Aleardi made it 2-0 when Devane - playing his second game with the Whalers after being returned by the Toronto Maple Leafs - kept the play alive behind the Niagara goal and found Aleardi in front for his foruth of the season at 14:49.
Agozzino scored on a hard shot from the slot at 19:18 of the period and Plymouth led, 2-1, after one period of play.
Plymouth extended the lead to 5-2 after forty minutes. Bathgate and Aleardi played together before for the Belleville Bulls in 2009-10 and their chemistry in Plymouth is evident. Aleardi and Bathgate worked a partial two-on-one to give Plymouth a 3-1 lead at 11:41 when Aleardi skated wide left wing into the Niagara zone and found Bathgate in front. Devane scored the eventual game-winner to give Plymouth a 4-2 lead at 15:59 when Aleardi crashed into the Niagara slot. The puck went free through traffic and Devane snapped a low shot from the left hashmark for his first of the season.
Heard increased the Plymouth lead to 5-2 at 17:53. Schmitz took a shot from the point that went wide of the Niagara goal, but the puck caromed to Heard at the right goal line and he potted a back hand shot over the shoulder of Niagara goaltender Mark Visentin.
The teams traded a goal aside in the third period - Theoret for Niagara at 1:44 and Bathgate for Plymouth at 10:04 - to complete the scoring
Niagara outshot Plymouth, 41-35.
With four points tonight, Schmitz became the sixth defenseman in Whalers history to score at least 100 points in his Plymouth career. Schmitz has 22 goals and 80 assists for 102 points on 191 games. He joins James Wisniewski (52-135=187), Bryan Berard (51-113=164), Cole Jarrett (43-108=151), Shaun Fisher (29-101=130) and Steve Ward (34-76=110) as a Whalers defenseman to score at least 100 points in his career.
Plymouth remains at home Saturday night, hosting Sarnia at 7:05pm at Compuware Arena in the Whalers annual Pink Out! game for Breast Cancer Awareness (6:45pm, 88.1FM WSDP, www.plymouthwhalers.com). The Whalers will be wearing pink jerseys for the game, to be auctioned off for charity after the game.
WHALERS TRADE RJ MAHALAK: Plymouth Whalers General Manager and Head Coach Mike Vellucci announced the trade of overage left wing RJ Mahalak to the Sarnia Sting in exchange for a sixth round draft choice in the 2012 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection.
The draft choice originally belonged to the London Knights.
The deal allows the Whalers to get down to the three overages (or 1991 birthdays). OHL teams are allowed to play just three overage players. With Jamie Devane returning to Plymouth from Toronto of the American Hockey League earlier this week and making his Whalers debut Thursday in Windsor, the Plymouth overages are now Devane, center Andy Bathgate and defenseman Beau Schmitz.
Mahalak - from Monroe, MI - was originally selected by Plymouth in the fourth round (80th overall) of the 2007 Ontario Hockey League Draft. In 207 regular season games with the Whalers, Mahalak scored 20 goals with 34 assists for 54 points and 253 PIM's and was +14.
Mahalak joins a Sarnia team that now has four overages - center Taylor Carnevale, defenseman Daniel Broussard, goaltender Brandon Maxwell and now Mahalak. OHL teams have to cut down to three overage players by the Jan. 9, 2012 Final Trade Deadline.
