Greyhounds shut down in Plymouth

The Plymouth Whalers put another dent into the Soo Greyhounds playoff hopes.

Holding the Greyhounds in check for most of the game, the Whalers scored a 5-2 victory in Ontario Hockey League action in Plymouth on Friday night.

The Greyhounds have an excellent opportunity to get back into the win column on Saturday with a match against the Saginaw Spirit at 7:30 p.m. to conclude their three-game road trip.

In Plymouth, Vaclav Meidl gave the Whalers a 1-0 first period lead before the Greyhounds responded 1:53 into the second as Matt Puntureri scored his 11th of the season short handed to tie the game at 1-1.

Jonas Fiedler scored just 1:04 later to give Plymouth a 2-1 lead before Ryan Ramsay scored the game winner midway through the period on the power play. Brent Mahon added another Whaler goal with 47 seconds remaining in the second frame.

Puntureri scored his second goal of the game in the third period to pull the Hounds back to within a pair at 4-2 but Ramsay's second power play goal a short time later sealed the Plymouth victory.

Aaron Lewicki recorded a pair of assists for the Greyhounds while Ramsay, the game's first star, and Fiedler also added two assists each.

The West Division rivals shared their share of tussles during the game as referee Carmen Cox handed out 78 minutes in penalties plus an additional three 10-minute misconducts.

Four sets of fighting majors were assessed as the Greyhounds' Brad Staubitz tangled with Plymouth's Gino Pisellini just 2:56 into the contest. Hounds rookie Chris Lawrence battled Tim Sestito, who was assessed the instigator penalty, while the Reg Thomas squared off with the Whalers Richard Power and Jacob King fought Plymouth's James Wisniewski.

Kevin Druce kicked aside 27 of 32 shots in net for the Greyhounds while Plymouth counterpart Paul Drew stopped 21 of 23 shots.

The Greyhounds struggled on the power play going 0-7 while Plymouth connected three times on eight opportunities.

The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 26-30-3-1 for 56 points. The club remains two points ahead of the idle Windsor Spitfires, who have three games in hand, for the final playoff in the Western Conference with eight games remaining in the regular season.

Following Saturday's tilt in Saginaw, the club will enjoy a five-day layoff before entertaining the Spitfires in a very important contest on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.