News Release

       Contact: Pete Krupsky                                                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

       Phone: (734) 453-8400                                                Saturday, January 12, 2008

             NEWCOMERS POWER PLYMOUTH TO 8-1 VICTORY OVER ERIE

PLYMOUTH – Although the Plymouth Whalers usually depend on the steady play of veterans for a lot of success, the Whalers’ 8-1 victory over the Erie Otters Saturday night at Compuware Arena featured three players as stars who didn’t start the season in Plymouth.

Goaltender Matt Hackett – acquired by the Whalers from Windsor on Nov. 13 for goaltender Michal Neuvirth – won his fourth straight game as the game’s first star in stopping 42-of-43 shots. Right wing Ryan Hayes – playing in his second game with Plymouth and his first at Compuware Arena after coming over from Boston College – added three assists and was +3 as the game’s second star. Defenseman Michal Jordan – acquired from Windsor in the same trade as Hackett on Nov. 13 from Windsor – was the game’s third star with three assists and was +3.

Although Jeremy Smith has been Plymouth’s lead goaltender since the Neuvirth deal, Hackett is making a statement for more ice time.

“Maybe we have a goaltending controversy starting,” said Plymouth President and General Manager Mike Vellucci. “It’s great to have two goaltenders playing well at the same time.”

Veteran Chris Terry led Plymouth with a pair of goals (team-leading 29-30). Plymouth received single goals from Joe Gaynor (4), Andrew Fournier (25), Tyler J. Brown (3), Brett Bellemore (4), Vern Cooper (10) and Taylor Carnevale (5).

Justin Hodgman scored the lone Erie goal, his 24th of the season.

Plymouth improves to 23-14-2-2, good for 50 points, third place in the OHL West and fourth overall in the Western Conference. Erie is now 9-30-2-1, last in the Western Conference.

The Whalers never trailed in the game, leading 3-0 after one period and 5-1 after forty minutes. Hackett was superb in the first period when Erie was its most dangerous. At one point in the first period, Erie outshot Plymouth, 8-1, but Hackett held Plymouth in the game. Gaynor started the scoring for the Whalers at 8:47 of the first period, batting home a rebound in front of Erie goaltender Shane Owen. The Whalers started to pull away when they scored twice in the span of 0:10. Fournier made no mistake with a shot that went top shelf from the slot at 15:41 and Brown scored ten seconds later when he picked the puck off an Erie defender and scored from the left wing.

After Hodgman scored the lone Erie goal on a power play at 8:16 of the second period, Terry and Bellemore scored at 13:24 and 17:29, respectively. Cooper (11:14), Terry (13:28) and Carnevale (13:48) completed the scoring in the third period.

Erie outshot Plymouth, 43-39.

Plymouth hosts Saginaw on Monday at 7:05 p.m. at Compuware Arena in its next game. Tickets can be purchased for all Plymouth games by calling the Compuware Arena box office at (734) 453-8400 or by going online to Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com.

About the Plymouth Whalers

The Plymouth Whalers are the only Metro Detroit team in the Ontario Hockey League, a developmental league for National Hockey League players. The Whalers all range in age from 15-21 years-old and are consistently one of the top teams in the OHL. In 2006-07, the Whalers won the OHL Championship.   www.plymouthwhalers.com.

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