News Release

A GOOD FRIDAY – BROPHEY’S SHORT HANDED GOAL IN OT GIVES PLYMOUTH A 6-5 VICTORY

PLYMOUTH – Evan Brophey scored a shorthanded goal at 6:25 of overtime to give the Plymouth Whalers a 6-5 victory over the Kitchener Rangers in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Ontario Hockey League Western Conference Semifinal Series.

Brophey – who led the Whalers in scoring during the regular season with 107 points – has scored twice in the playoffs, both overtime game-winners. Brophey scored the game-winner in overtime on March 24 against Guelph in a 3-2 victory at the Compuware Sports Arena.

A sellout crowd of 3,775 watched Friday’s game at the Compuware Sports Arena.

On the game-winning goal, Brophey took Wes Cunningham’s pass and beat Kitchener goaltender John Murray five-hole with a low shot from the left faceoff circle.

James Neal scored twice for Plymouth and now has six goals in the playoffs. Chris Terry (1), Tom Sestito (5) and Daniel Ryder (4) added single goals for the Whalers. Steve Downie scored twice for Kitchener and has five goals in the post season; Yannick Weber (3) scored twice, while Victor Oreskovich (1) added a single for the Rangers.

Kitchener outshot Plymouth, 55-34 and went 3-for-13 on the power play. Plymouth went 1-for-4 on their own power play. Whalers goaltender Michal Neuvirth picked up his third victory without a loss in the playoffs for the Whalers in stopping 50-of- 55 shots. Murray stopped 28-of-34 shots for Kitchener in taking his first loss in the playoffs.

Plymouth took a 4-2 lead into the third period, but Kitchener got power play goals from Weber (8:45), Downie (9:16) and Weber again (12:30) to take their first lead of the game at 5-4. But Neal tapped home a loose puck on a Plymouth power play from the right wing side of the Kitchener goal at 13:42 to tie the game at 5-5.

That set the stage for Brophey’s game-winner.

The dates and times for the rest of the Plymouth-Kitchener series is as follows:

Game 2 – Sunday, April 8 – Plymouth at Kitchener at 7:00 p.m.
Game 3 – Tuesday, April 10 – Kitchener at Plymouth at 7:05 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, April 11 – Plymouth at Kitchener at 7:30 p.m.

Games 5-7 if necessary:

Game 5 – Friday, April 13 – Kitchener at Plymouth at 7:05 p.m.
Game 6 – Sunday, April 15 – Plymouth at Kitchener at 7:00 p.m.
Game 7 – Monday, April 16 – Kitchener at Plymouth at 7:05 p.m.

Tickets for the series are available by calling the Compuware Sports Arena at (734) 453-8400 or by going to Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com.