Target practice

Seguin, McCauley shine as Whalers bury Sudbury with relentless offensive assault


BY ED WRIGHT
Oct. 10, 2009, 11 p.m.

  Don't feel bad, Alain Valiquette.

  You won't be the only goalie Tyler Seguin sends to the showers early this season.

  Just the latest.

  As the Plymouth Whalers' fans cheered their rising star Saturday night at Compuware Arena, Valiquette took the long, slow skate to the Sudbury Wolves' bench at the 7:43 mark of the second period.

  His exit was precipitated by Seguin, who scooped up a loose puck near mid-ice, handled the slab of rubber like it was velcroed to his stick and lifted a soft back-hander into the top-right corner of the net to extend the Whalers' lead to 5-1 in a game they would go on to dominate, 9-2.

  Valiquette was replaced by Andrew Loverock, who, like his showering predecessor, didn't get any love from the rock-solid Whalers.

  After getting short-circuited one night earlier in a 2-1 loss to London, the Whalers' offense was textbook effective, producing nine goals and at least a dozen near-misses.

  The Whalers improved to 6-4-0-0 while Sudbury slipped to 3-5-0-1.

  When the night was over, Seguin, the Ontario Hockey Leaugue's point leader heading into the game, had produced a hat trick, two helpers and an Excedrin headache for the Wolves.

  Myles McCauley enjoyed his most proficient night as a Whaler, recording two goals and an assist.

  Joe Gaynor, AJ Jenks and Garrett Meurs all added a pair of helpers to their stat lines.

  Short-handed Sudbury struck first 6:22 into the contest when John McFarland corraled a loose puck at mid-ice, skated in and wristed a top-shelfer over Hackett's left shoulder.

  Plymouth deadlocked the game at 1-all with 6:18 left in the first period when Leo Jenner blasted a sizzling one-timer from the top of the left face-off circle past Valiquette. The goal was assisted by McCauley and Seguin.

  The Whalers snatched a 2-1 lead at the 16:10 mark when, seven seconds after gaining a man advantage, McCauley fired a low liner into the back of the net after controlling a slick pass from Gaynor. Michal Jordan also picked up an assist on the power-play lamp lighter.

  Seguin nearly deposited an ESPN Sportscenter goal with 88 seconds left in the period when he broke free just outside the crease, spun and flipped a back-handed shot that sailed just high of the net.

  Sudbury outshot Plymouth, 15-10, in the first period.

  Mitchell Heard scored a "Did-you-see-that?" goal 59 seconds into the second period -- his first of the season -- when he knocked his own rebound out of mid-air and past Valiquette, who was still in recovery mode from stopping Heard's first shot. Jenks and Meurs notched helpers.

  The Whalers kept the heat on when they tallied a two-man advantage goal at the 5:28 mark on a sharply struck wrister from Tyler J. Brown. Jenks registered another assist.

  Heard stole the puck at the blue line two minutes later and broke free, but was stuffed by a sprawling Valiquet.

  Hackett somehow managed to smothered an Eric O'Dell shot from the doorstep at the 15-minute mark. Seventy seconds later, he stoned Marcus Foligno from six feet away.

  Foligno is the son of former Detroit Red Wing and current Sudbury general manager Mike Foligno.

  Seguin's night-ender against Valiquet was the final goal of the second period, during which Plymouth outshot their visitors, 18-11.

  McCauley upped the Whalers' advantage to 6-1 4:17 into the third stanza when he buried a pass from Gaynor top shelf. Seguin added to his league-leading points total with his third assist of the night.

  Seguin slapped in a rebound mid-way through the third period to rub some salt in the Wolves' increasingly painful wound. Heard and Garrett Muers assisted.


  The teams exchanged 4-on-4 goals 20 seconds apart with just under eight minutes to play with Kristoff Kontos scoring for the Wolves and Seguin (from Colin Mac Donald) completing his hat trick for the winners.

  Meurs capped the scoring with a pretty wrap-around goal with 1:25 to play.

  Hackett was exemplary between the pipes, stopping 32 shots.

  Plymouth outshot Sudbury, 48-34.
 

Ed Wright can be reached at [email protected] or (734) 453-1980.



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Tyler Seguin scores one of his three goals during Saturday's 9-2 victory over Sudbury. Seguin also added two assists. (photo by Walt Dmoch)