News Release

SESTITO’S HAT TRICK, SPECIAL TEAMS POWER PLYMOUTH TO 7-1 VICTORY OVER LONDON

LONDON – Tom Sestito registered a natural hat trick in the first period and the Plymouth Whalers dominated special teams in a 7-1 victory over the London Knights in an Ontario Hockey League game played Thursday night before 8,215 at the John Labatt Centre in London.

The Whalers went 5-for-12 on the power play and shut down the OHL’s top power play by going 12-for-12 on the penalty kill.

Sestito – with his third hat trick of the year – has 17 goals on the season. Plymouth received single goals from Steve Ward (8^th), Jared Boll (11^th), James Neal (team-leading 18^th) and Chris Terry (8^th). Veteran Evan Brophey contributed four assists.

London’s Matt Clarke spoiled Plymouth goaltender Michal Neuvirth’s bid for a shutout by scoring his second goal of the season with 2:21 remaining in the third period.

Plymouth (now 18-10-1-0) won their fifth straight game and moves into sole possession of second place in the OHL West Division with 37 points, three points behind the first place Saginaw Spirit (19-9-0-2) and one point ahead of third place Sarnia (16-9-2-2). Plymouth is now 10-1-1-0 over its last 12 games.

The Whalers raced to a 4-0 lead after one period of play. Ward started the scoring with a hard shot from the left face-off dot to beat London goaltender Steve Mason at 2:52. Sestito then scored three straight goals at 4:08, 8:13 and 10:20, respectively. Sestito’s first goal came when Plymouth defenseman Brett Bellemore dug the puck out of his zone past a London defender and passed to neutral territory to Dan Collins, who found Sestito breaking into the London zone. Sestito stuffed a backhand by Mason. Sestito’s second goal came on a power play, when he knocked down Ward’s point shot in front of the London goal and beat Mason with the shot. Sestito completed his hat trick when he batted home a rebound.

Plymouth increased their lead to 5-0 at 6:34 of the second period when Boll took a pass from Ryan McGinnis from the left point and scored from the right dot with a hard shot over the shoulder of Mason. The Whalers led, 5-0, after forty minutes of play.

Neal scored at 4:26 of the third period the give the Whalers a 6-0 lead when he moved in from the right wing and beat Mason with a shot from the right hash mark. Terry completed the Plymouth scoring when he tapped home a rebound at 15:28.

Plymouth hosts Sudbury on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. at the Compuware Sports Arena and Barrie on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. Tickets are available by calling the Compuware Sports Arena at (734) 453-8400 at by going to Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com.